neil in gemini space

catching up - 2022-07-19

life

• time is the fire in which we burn: still trying to find strategies to be better organised:-) todoist is the front runner for now: runs on all my devices and os. as indeed does simplenote; i use nvalt in MacOS and this syncs with simplenote.
• managing and working on family project to split house to finance care for an elderly relative, and build me a home. building material costs apparently starting to stabilize but getting things done still taking longer that it did. two sets of new services: i've done a lot of trenching lol.
• forty-two: name of what was the garage and guest bedroom of family house now being developed as my home.
• may and june manic but family project calming down a little so i'm making space for exercise and music again.
• finished an exploratory no expectations non-relationship with an ex-partner. same shit still the same shit and me held guilty of holding the view that the same shit continues and is an issue WTF! of course i cannot be blameless myself and i have exhibited insanity by thinking anything might be better than it was before.
• lost access to sewing machines due family guests long stay in the room these were in; but now re-connected:-) much hemming for older relative who needs shorter trouser legs, and clothes tagged for care-home residence (i make cotton bias tape, use alphabet sewing mode to put on name, sew to clothes). patched some merino tops where worn-through by rucksack friction. velcro added to pockets of walking, hiking trousers to stop stuff falling out of them. other small mending tasks.

employment

• mainly family project.
• 6 weeks of an aviation ground support: now stopped. it was too intense and distracted me from what has to me my main task: family project.
• found out that labouring on building work needs brains, experience, and muscle: i short on all lol.

computing

• still dabbling in awk, rust, and now raku (possibly i may be able to write and read it:-)).
• using Logitech MX Ergo trackballs: work well. multi-machine useful.
• got an RPi4-2Gb and metal case: overclocking to 1.8 and 650 for the GPU. runs at 45 deg.
• revisited web-scraping aviation weather reports and reformatting these for better mobile view.
• set up home office around refurbished Dell i7, dual monitor, dual booting Xubuntu, Windows 10 (only because W10 came with the machine not because i needed, wanted, intend to use). absolutely great value machine.
• MacBookProM1 damaged by me spilling wine over it (note to self to stop putting on the table during meal!). right-side ports trashed along with fingerprint pad. in for repair so i should get it back in a few weeks fully working again:-)
• using qute browser quite a bit. vim everywhere!

health and fitness

• running again 2-3 times a week: short runs, some intervals.
• VO2Max not as low as i expected after about 6 weeks of not running. was 46 in april, slipped to 42, back to 43 after a week of runs.
• swimming again 2-3 times a week.

music

• short bass practices possible again: arpeggios over Dm7 G7 (II V) and of course autumn leaves progressions for now.
• using Harrison Mixbus 32C on Linux: Ubuntu Media distribution over Xubuntu on i7. latency is at least as good as on my last i9 iMac if not better. ssl 2+ interface instead of retired focusrite claret because focusrite just could not get their shit together to have their kit work on MacOS!

reading

• work, James Suzman: yet again! i cannot recommend this book highly enough! thought provoking and rigorous.
• Power, Sex, Suicide, Nick Lane. a bit long in places but overall useful and interesting. i do not however agree with Lane's comments about eukaryote evolution being as special as he says: look at James Webb images, work out the number of niches for any life, we cannot be that special! i very much doubt that we are the only multi-cellular lifeforms in the universe, this galaxy, or even for that matter this solar system.

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