Weeknotes 191

Right, but seriously though, how can it be September?

On Monday the biblical rain of the previous week abated and I had a cool sunny bank holiday bike ride across the river and back. The leaves on the trees were already turning brown. 🍂

My physical health is below maximum at the moment. The cough still lingers and, despite the occasional ride, I’m not getting enough regular exercise to keep my weight within a comfortable range.

In the abstract I’m motivated to sort this out but in practice I’m stuck in a vicious cycle of feeling a bit under the weather and therefore not inclined to do much. I’m hoping the cough will clear up soon and I’ll regain the energy to go to the gym or cook healthy meals or both. In the meantime it’s difficult to resist prioritising short-term comfort over long-term gains.

On the other hand, my other hand’s getting better, so I can pretty much do as much lateral pinching as I like. 🤏🏻

I had lunch, coffee and a stroll through east London with Tekin on Friday, and met Al & Adam for brunch yesterday, all of which brightened my spirits.

Last night I saw God of Carnage at the Lyric Hammersmith and it was pretty good. I was impressed by the performances and staging even if I find it hard to say what the play’s about (beyond “people argue”).

A couple of people recommended the Mico toastie maker and pointed out it was briefly in stock on Amazon, so I bought one for the lols. I don’t care to understand how it works but, yeah, it somehow makes a decent toastie in the microwave. Earlier today I made a toasted Beigel Bake bagel with (vegan analogue) cheese, pastrami and pickles. Delicious.

Like I said: short-term comfort.

The SYMFONISK sound remote I bought and enjoyed in 2020 has fared less well since then. It takes a piddly little CR2032 button battery which runs out too quickly and makes the whole device unreliable, and I’ve long since given up feeding it fresh batteries every few weeks.

I recently got the new version which takes AAA batteries instead and is proving massively more trustworthy than its predecessor. It’s super chunky and I like its big reassuring buttons. I only need the volume controls — so I can make the TV continually louder or quieter as every recent film careens between an inaudible whisper and a deafening explosion — but the other buttons are easy to ignore.

My only frustration is that its “shortcut buttons” aren’t exposed in HomeKit. I’d naïvely assumed I’d be able to use them to run Shortcuts to control lights or whatever, but it seems they can only trigger playlists at the moment, which isn’t something I ever want. I suppose it’s possible IKEA will add HomeKit (or Matter?) support in future but they’re completely inscrutable so I won’t hold my breath.

I also bit the bullet and bought a Studio Display after almost 18 months of hesitation. I love it so far. I’ve never had a monitor with this kind of pixel density so the clarity alone feels like a massive upgrade.

Its arrival gave me the excuse to do a clear-out of my home office. I filled several bin bags with paper and empty boxes for recycling, hid all the junk in the cupboards, and wiped a shameful amount of dust from all the surfaces.

It’s been years since the room was this clean and orderly. It’s tempting to believe that I already feel more productive in it.

Haven’t produced anything yet.