My aquarium seems to be working. Did a quick test and my CO2 levels are the lowest category possible, but most plants I have should not require it. Currently I have a very simple setup, at least compared to some of the mindboggling creations over at /r/aquascaping that I gawk at. But my setup is working, and my two Amano shrimp seem content. Want to keep this tank for a bit before I start thinking about something bigger/better - I first need to make more mistakes before I can do advanced stuff, I think. We visited the Waterloopbos the other day! Did a double-date thing with an ex-coworker of mine. Had a great afternoon of walking around, looking at the 30+ now-ruined flow dynamics experiments and birds and plants that my friend and his gf were good at identifying. The forest is (by Dutch standards) actually lively and diverse in nature due to most of it being underwater or near water.
I finally finished my horrible preschool job a few weeks ago, and jesus christ I didn't realize what a number that job had been doing on my body/psyche until I was out of it. It's nice not being on edge and full of tension all day, or collapsing into a ball and sleeping for 12 hours every night. Barring an act of god, I'm never teaching preschool again. I love teaching, and I love kids, but it just isn't worth it. I have a job teaching music over the summer, which I'm really excited about, and I hope it'll pave the way for future jobs. And I have a month or so of downtime before then, which I am using to actually deal with a lot of the problems which have been accumulating the past year. Found a therapist, started meditating every day, and I'm making time for music again. I spend an hour a day practicing piano, and another hour practicing improvising and songwriting. I'm hoping to put together some videos on the games / techniques I use to get me out of my creative blocks, because I think they might be really useful to other people who are stuck. I also realized how much of my creative block was rooted in a more general emotional block - it's kind of incredible how much easier it is to make music you like when you are actually able to emotionally connect to it again. Music is just flowing out of me naturally again, and it feels great. Here's a couple tracks I put together this past week to submit to a little beatmaking contest: Especially pleased with the first one. I think I am going to try and record an EP or Album of summery, funky tunes to release by around June.
I found a great public RC track about 25 minutes from my house. ecib and I headed over there to try the Frogtima out. This happened 5 minutes in: That broke the a front C-hub, the rear arm connection, and a rear shock all at once! Also you can see a good amount of paint flake off the wing. I got it driving again in about 15 minutes and took it easy after that. This week I am repairing and hardening the Frogtima. Painting continues...
There were two crutches and at least two casts. He's the guy who used to ride motorbikes in the canyon with Damon Bradshaw so hurting himself was just a thing. On the plus side it was the 'rail rather than the Baja Bug, which mighta killed him. Something people disregard is that center-of-gravity and moment-of-inertia concerns take on an outsized importance in free space. A little nose-heaviness is problematic when four tires are on dirt but when four tires are several inches above dirt, the front two are barely going to move while the back two reach for the sky. We learned early on that we did not air my buddy's smallblock chevy FJ-40 because the guy who built it wanted it to peel out easily to impress the chicks so he moved the transmission forward eight inches. That initial jump was minuscule but memorable, particularly with 450lbs of removable top sitting in the garage.
Home is starting to look homely. Taking the rest of the week off because of epic muscle soreness. I'm kinda annoyed with how classical languages are taught. There's practically no effort directed at conversation, which, sure, I'm not gonna meet any Romans, but that's how people acquire languages better. Nobody teaches introductory Spanish or German by forcing down tables of terminations with intention of translating Cervantes or Goethe by the end of the year, at least nobody who retains students, so why is Latin and Greek so often stuck in the XIXth century? Rethorical question, at least mostly, but a real problem. Right now, I'm mostly using YouTube (he also has two Greek playlists), and wait for my copies of Lingua Latina per se Illustrata and Alexandros to arrive.
Ongoing dates seem to be going well. We agreed we're at the stage of "obviously we're doing something together next weekend!" We live on opposite sides of town so midweek has been challenging so far. My hamstring/posterior chain seems to be going less well, though. I started having trouble with it a week and a half ago during a bike-run workout. It seems to be the same issue I had 2.5 years ago but the opposite leg. It might be an issue because of not getting strength training in a year. I might have to miss the first in person race this weekend. That's hard to swallow but probably for the best.
Loving our little camper-trailer build! It's a little more fucked than expected, with 2 rotten corners we had to gut and replace, but for a 500$ buy I can't complain too much. I think we've already invested as much into in, and there are still more things to buy. I'm happy we're past the "destroying" stage and starting building. Learning a lot, it's challenging but small enough to be the perfect weekend occupation. But next week we need to help my sister move, and my boyfriend's mom the week after that. I need to find a way to carve out some time to advance the camper! I really can't wait to have our little private space in the woods. It's going to be really simple - a massive king sized bed with storage underneath and a little table with benches on the other side. Had a stressful week last week, with an email server migration I lead at work being a mess (I suspect because our original hosting screwed up some of it, but i'm not technically knowledgeable enough to be certain). After a week of talking to support and making tests and adjustments, things are mostly settled now. Preparing for 2 board meetings and having a side gig to manage at the same time made it for a hard week. It's been a while since I had trouble falling asleep because my brain keeps circling to-dos and writing emails for the next day. But I feel it's mostly behind me know and I've re-gained control of my to-do list. I've finished reading "Range" the other day - I think it got on my list from a mention on Hubski and it was pretty good. Maybe because it reassured me in my biases and life-decisions. I've started on "Antifragile" and i'm enjoying it so far. The writing is really disjointed, and it doesn't feel like the cookie-cutter books in the genre. I enjoy it for the style, even if it's a bit over the top at times and I'm not on board with all the arguments. What I didn't realize getting into it was that is was part of a book series. And that a previous book in the series he keeps referencing is called "The Black Swan". It's all about general life philosophy or some shit, so I was really confused what it had to do with that Natalie Portman movie, until I realized it was a different black swan.
It feels like we've started to turn a corner for the first time since this whole mess started. Most people I know are in some stage of getting vaccinated, if not already fully protected. I have long-delayed travel plans to see family to look forward to in the coming months. Some outdoor concerts that were rescheduled to this Summer look increasingly likely to happen. It's incredible how nice it feels simply to have concrete plans for good things to look forward to again.
Went to the office yesterday to take care of a few things. At 3:00 my wife calls and tells me that the dog has somehow managed to destroy her front leg in the process of escaping through the fence. Skin split open from paw to just below the shoulder, bone is fractured and partly hanging out. The puppy must have been shock because she was not acting hurt. Wife rushed her to an emergency clinic and I bolted out of work to join her. Waited a couple of hours for them to triage and stabilize her and give us our options and recommendation. For five grand they can amputate it, or for eight grand they can try to repair it with a 30% chance of repair being a success, most likely would still end up an amputation. Ugh. The dog is only 7 months old. Spoke with a good friend that has been a dog trainer for decades and has run animal shelters and she recommended we shop around before the surgery. So I spent part of the morning calling several clinics that she recommended and getting them to review the report from the emergency clinic. They all came back with the same recommendation, but with prices that ranged from 3K to 4K. Only one had availability to do it today. So went to the emergency clinic and it took them an hour to bring the puppy out. Ended up being 15 minutes late to the surgery, but they were cool about it. Ugh. But, she will survive, and tripods generally are just as happy and active as quadrupeds. So, life is good, even if deeper in debt.
Thank you. The crazy thing is that she didn't act hurt. Like she didn't even notice. Even when i picked her up from the emergency clinic to take her to the surgeon she seemed normal if a little less energetic. According to the surgeon, she'll be up and walking on 3 legs today. We'll see tonight how she really is.
The weather here is nice outside, but my office in the basement is still fucking cold, no matter what I do. Best solution so far was to put a radiant space heater under the right side of my desk. This keeps my arm and mouse/trackpad hand warm, which makes a huge difference. I'm also making sure to wear my Glerups in the house, rather than my Danner boots, because the Danners just pull up the cold from the concrete floor, and the Glerups isolate me from the cold floor. Thursday the Yard Project starts in earnest! My Master Gardener mother is coming with a pickup truck full of plants and trees, and I have 6 yards of fresh compost to move around the yard before then. We will then plant everything in this new gorgeous soil, which will hopefully recondition the crap soil that is underneath, and we will have a lovely yard full of food and prettiness. And a little parking slot for my car, so I can pull it off the street. And birdbaths. Gonna have a few birdbaths, too. Saw a bird trying to bathe in the overturned lid of garbage can, the other day, and felt bad for them. Maybe I'll put up the hummingbird feeder, too. It's that time of year again, here in the Northern Hemisphere...
Lol, my system is the exact same in my basement office. I pull my hand under the table every few minutes to keep my fingers nimble. I have an Amazon branded radiant heater that is sort of a piece of shit. It works really well for some stretches and then gets cold for some stretches and the stretches don't really seem to correlate to how warm the room or the heater's internal temp is. If I could the heat situation squared away I'd never leave the basement!
I think there's a market for some sort of recirculating water-based heating system for desks, like underfloor heating. Imagine a rubber mat with plastic/rubber tubes in it, similar to the design of an electric blanket. It connects to a small space heater, that the water cycles through. The mat connects to the underside of any desk, warming the surface and the person's legs under the desk, in an efficient and reliable manner without the need for fans or heating the entire room. Set an MSRP of $250, with discounts down to around $175, and I think people could make a killing on it. Maybe I'll make it and rich.
So, dating. I had one first date this past Sunday and I have 4 more lined up for this Thursday-Sunday. No double booking people -- at least not of yet. I'm approaching dating rather seriously this go round. The goal: find someone who I get along with and share a lot in common with, who I want to hang out with a lot! It's interesting, this approach, because I've never quite tried something like this before. I'm using Hinge, thanks to the advice of several people, and it's going much, MUCH better than the playing field on OKCupid, so thank you for your recommendations. I've actually stepped a bit too far into the swimming pool as I have surplus of gentlemen who would like to meet. However, I'm absolutely refining and updating my selections for this weekend as various users seem less likely to pan out. I'm learning a great deal about some basic attributes I'm looking for in someone. For instance: - i prefer someone who has experience in some kind of office environment mainly because if you don't you have no idea what the fuck i do and it's really hard to explain it; at least if you work in an office environment, i might be able to begin to explain it effectively - also having a similar job = similar schedules, which is a big thing. i was awakened to the reality of this one when a bartender messaged me at 3 am hoping i kept "bartender hours." no, buddy, i'm sorry, but i almost never will message you back at 3 am. and i like to wake up at 7. most bar shifts start around the time i get off work you know? - it's interesting how the pandemic has really diversified people's experiences of the past 18 months, and to be honest i'm going to have more in common with people who had similar experiences than i did. i have most in common with other people who went to full time work from home. - obviously, i need someone with similar tattoo appreciation as I have, which i realized today when i messaged my thursday night date about tattoos and he had a decidedly lukewarm response!! something i didn't even THINK about until it happened! - at this point, at this age, a guy with a kid or an ex wife is actually more interesting as a potential option than someone who's made it to 30 and no one has been willing to commit to yet it's a game of quality AND quantity. there are a lot of great guys out there but once you start sorting out all the "obviously incompatible lifestyle" folks out the playing field dwindles. I am MOST excited for my date on Saturday. This person really has almost everything I am interested in... ....but now i realized i have to check about tattoos :)
I think the last girl I was seeing broke things off because I haven't had a long term, live-in relationship. Also maybe because we had different views on marijuana. Me: "I have nothing against it but work would VERY much frown on it." Her: "I think I'd just quit. I used to smoke every night and only quit realizing it was a rut." Might be good to screen pot use, too. I think among late 30s/early 40s there can be some polar opposite opinions. Good luck on your dates! The girl I'm seeing now called not living with a partner a yellow flag, not a red flag, and we've talked about exes and relationships more since with all going well.
Super cool tat! How many is that for you? I have two, both ribs, and am considering a third (plague doctor lmao) but don't know where to put it. I want to be able to cover it up as necessary. Ribs are easy to do that. Arms and legs get a lot harder.
it's like 20-21 at this point! i would say i also want mine to be reasonably coverable so i am making the sacrifices of the upper parts of limbs first because uhmmmm one of the reasons i get tattoos is to show them off so other people know i am badass, duh! so it's kind of not fun when they're all hidden. with this positioning i can ostensibly hide my tattoos at work. but also i have inner finger and ring and wrist tattoos sooo I just really, really love tattoos. And I love the way an Am trad rose looks on a hand. there are some tattoos i don't love and won't probably ever get, a throat tattoo is really not for me in any capacity. but i'm absolutely planning on finishing out the inner finger set at some point, kind of cuz once in i'm in you know? they haven't fired me yet and i've got 3 of them done. also theoretically only in imaginary land my dream 2nd career is a tattoo artist (i just don't know how much I'd actually enjoy...you know, customers) so like yup. that's how i feel about tattoos. i fuckin' love 'em.
I have continued sewing and I am starting to feel a bit more confident in my abilities. The fact that I am a bit quicker as well means that I am not as scared of making mistakes and ruining a project. that will probably change when I start doing new stuff though, next up is sweatpants and leggings I think. I really like just spending a few hours sewing and listening to music. Sewing has just enough of a cognitive load that I can do it and still sit and appreciate what I am listenig to. It is also just really empowering to make something that I have a practical use out of. I can wear a t-shirt I made and feel happy that it looks nice on me and know that I made that possible. I hope to get to a point where I can make some really eleborate nice-looking stuff, as well as some really well made basics.