Weeknotes 73

I’m still doing those stretches every night before bed. I haven’t missed a single day this year. Over time my motivation has become less about investing in my physical health and more about irrationally maintaining my streak, which is as good a reason as any to keep going.

Likewise, my experience of Returnal has progressed from merely meditative to fully mindless, like zoning out to a good game of Tetris. I’m probably getting gradually better at it, but it’s hard to tell, not least because I still haven’t got very far.

I’m looking forward to the conclusion of Mare of Easttown, or Murdur Durdur as it’s now exclusively referred to in this household. We rewatched the whole thing again in preparation. It’s good.

Late one evening I was alarmed by an alien noise in the other room which turned out to be the sound of Velcro® coming undone of its own accord. I’ve added more Velcro® to prevent this from happening again, although if it does happen again I’ll have made it louder and more alarming.

Installing the new Apple TV kicked off a lengthy, expensive and most of all unnecessary series of changes to my AV setup. As a result of this totally avoidable ongoing situation I ended up moving a Sonos Beam out of my living room and into the bedroom, where it has replaced a crummy LG soundbar.

Although moving the Beam is a byproduct of other decisions, it’s kind of convenient because I’ve been wanting to get rid of the old soundbar for a while. The only way to get audio into it was via Bluetooth so I had to pair it every time I wanted to watch something, and that required a complex ritual with the TV remote, Apple TV remote and soundbar remote (household terminology: “interacting with dooves”) which I increasingly resented.

The Beam introduced a different problem because it can only receive audio over HDMI ARC or optical, neither of which is supported by my ancient bedroom TV. So I bought an audio extractor which seemed kind of dodgy but actually works fine: a few HDMI devices go into it, then HDMI video and optical audio come out of it into the TV and Beam respectively. And because the extractor switches between inputs automatically, and the Beam has an IR receiver which allows any remote to control its volume, and the TV’s power is now controlled by a spare TRÅDFRI outlet I had lying around, the Apple TV remote is mercifully the only doof with which I must interact.

I’m aware this is a convoluted way of recreating the single-remote convenience of television in the 1990s, but getting it all working has been a mildly enjoyable technical puzzle to solve and has taken my mind off the fact that my life is confined to a small London flat.

7.9kg down. 10kg feels within reach. That’d be a nice milestone.