Weeknotes 60

Welcome to the bottom-right corner of February! We really showed that perfectly rectangular bastard who’s boss.

It’s been a year since I first mentioned COVID-19 here. At the time I’d been looking forward to visiting Canada for an interview and it was disappointing to have to reschedule everything to happen remotely, even though I was relieved to avoid the actual travel given that it was already looking pretty risky.

I don’t know what I’d have said if you’d told me I’d still be stuck in my flat a year later. As previously discussed it’s basically fine, but looking back on this does make me realise that the cosmic background pandemic anxiety has been suffusing everything for a whole year, and that the time has trickled away without any real variety or (mercifully?) consequence.

I’ll spare you another GIF and myself another round of derision but the toe-touching project is going really well. I can not only comfortably touch my toes but also lay my palms flat on the floor, which feels like good progress for two months. That’s probably enough flexibility for programming work but I’m going to keep doing the daily stretches to try to preserve this new ability and keep typing-related pain at bay.

To begin with I was a bit pessimistic about how much benefit I’d get from my new sit-stand desk but it turns out I really like using it in the standing position, especially in the morning when my legs are well-rested.

I thought my inherent laziness would be a barrier to standing while I worked, but I hadn’t appreciated until now that the act of sitting down and standing back up also requires effort. It’s nice to be able to wander in and out of the room, while making coffee or thinking about a problem or whatever, without having to commit to that entire procedure.

I thought this Whitelight video about Control did a good job of summarising what I liked and disliked about it. In hindsight it makes me grateful that so much creative imagination could be packed into a single game even if it doesn’t quite work as a whole.

One thing that frustrates me about a lot of the online discussion about Control is the recurring complaint that it’s too easy. The routine filler combat is straightforward but I found some of the difficulty spikes pretty sharp and there are still a few bits that I can’t beat. I realise that some people specifically enjoy challenging combat even though I find that hard to relate to, but I don’t understand why they’d be playing a game like this in the first place. Seeing them complain about it just makes me feel even more unskilled.

The RSS reader I use, NetNewsWire, is getting tantalisingly close to gaining support for iCloud syncing. Besides “show me new stuff from my feeds” this is really the only feature I care about and I don’t think any feed reader has it.

At the moment I don’t use RSS much because the lack of syncing makes me keep NetNewsWire trapped on my iPad to avoid the chore of marking items as read across several devices. If iCloud syncing finally launches on iOS then I’ll have the unimaginable freedom of being able to read other people’s weeknotes on my phone. 🤞🏻

Internet friends may know that I resent the performative stinginess of those tiny jars of Tiptree jam. During lockdown I’ve acquired another jam nemesis: those tall, thin jars of St Dalfour. Few things make me angrier than fruitlessly clattering a teaspoon around the bottom of that jar to reach the dregs, my fingers getting jammier with each infuriating second.

Of course they’re happy to sell you a special spoon to reach the bottom of their stupid jars. Wake up sheeple, it’s basically DRM. (Don’t get me started on calling it “preserve”. You’re not fooling anyone! I know jam when I see it! It’s in a jar mate!)

It’s beginning to feel properly like springtime. The mornings are a little lighter, the evenings are a little longer, and the warm afternoon light streams through the windows from time to time. I don’t think I’ve ever needed it more than I do now.

Bark bark. Bark bark bark bark. Bark.