Weeknote 5 - 19 to 25 Oct 2024

What have I been doing?

Personally, not much activity happening, which is to say: this was basically a routine sort of week. That's not a bad thing, but I can't think of much that was "of note."

I'm entering the final phase of training, which means I hit another 12 miler last Saturday, and will move into my final two long runs before my taper for the Dino Valley 25K.

I started reading When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut. I was reading Persepolis Rising, the 7th book in The Expanse saga, but I'm either just not ready for the book or I'm bored with the characters. In theory, a long, sprawling epic story is interesting and consuming. In practice (maybe it's just these authors), this is along time to spend with these characters, and I'm finding the writing style a bit... mediocre?

I did receive some new woodworking tools in this week! I think this completes the "basic collection" that I need to be able to actually start making things. This week's haul included a block plane, a shoulder plane, a coping saw, and some more measuring/marking tools. My first goal is to build this book stand, and perhaps a dovetail box after that. We'll see where it takes me! I do think project-based work, even if I'm bad at it, is going to be the best way forward here to gain the skills I'm currently lacking.

Work was work-y. Nothing to see here.

P is doing really great. I'm seeing so much growth in her over the last couple of months. I think Elaine and I are both feeling a little reticent to "look at it straight on" in fear of things returning to how they used to be. We had years of tough, and months of REALLY tough. But there are signs from her that things are genuinely looking up and hopeful.

Lyla and I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 last night. We finished the entire book series months and months ago, and have slowly eked our way through the movies.

What do I need to take care of?

Same as last week.

What caught my interest?

I learned today about a music genre called "shoegaze," which seems to be described best by listening to "Mayonaise" by Smashing Pumpkins. I've been looking for a genre that encapsulates the feel of that song for a long time, so this'll be a fun rabbit hole (Spotify playlist to match).

Lots of stuff I'm running into re: avoiding news consumption and online feeds. Wherever this is coming from... I should probably listen. We're less than two weeks out from the election, and the truth is I've been feeling the need to step back from even Reddit/NYT consumption, which are the last vestiges of daily news/daily feeds in my routine.

Tagged: weeknotes,