Howdy. Zak's the name. This is my little space on the web. The navigation links at the top of the page are the gist of the things you'll find, but I throw in some random thoughts and ramblings too.
Garlic is in
Pulled out the old silverbeet and some forearm length carrots and chucked in the garlic. Bulbs saved 3 years running from Te Mata Garlic NZ. Not sure what variety anymore but they do the trick. Nice wintery day.
#GardeningNZ #allotment
Time to move on
Been trying a bunch of Obsidian / GitHub Pages deploying thingymabobs with Jekyll / Quartz / Obsidian GitHub Publisher, Obsidian Digital Garden blah blah and they’ve pretty much all broken on me, I have no idea how to fix them, and don’t have the desire to allocate the attention needed. Going to simplify. There are plenty of options that are looking good. These two are grabbing me:
#TechNotes
Horrah
Not sure what’s in the water but I’m being drawn back into the horror genre again. These are looking good. Is the 70s vibe a recent thing? And why do I like it?
Cuckoo
In a Violent Nature
Late Night with the Devil
#movies
Thoughts.
On blogs and posts. I’m a fan of general day-to-day things-we-do posts. I enjoy reading about amazing crafts and skills people are masters at, but I like to know the humans behind those too. A photo post with an observation or two can say a lot, and its a nice break in my feeds. I’m going to do this more. I hope others don’t constrain themselves too much. @jbaty gets it.
On work. I’m back full-time after my Covid stint. I’m not sure a hangover is amplifying my feelings but I’m really struggling with my role. It was a big shift for me 6 months ago and I’m knee deep in the challenges I was expecting, but not handling it as well as I thought. I am going to have to dig deep over the next couple of months. I got some wins towards the end of the week, but I’ve got some work to do.
On running. I’m back at it, light jogs every couple days, throwing in some hills. 28.1km/893m last week. Body feels like it retained some fitness so just have to be careful not to overdo it.
On home.
I’ve tried to get some things sorted around the house this month, and it’s worked:
Some of this is very basic stuff, but I’ve sat on them for a long time. I just needed to commit. The #WeblogPoMo2024 community and initiative was a good motivator. I’ve stopped the daily posting, but I’ve maintained getting things done. I’ve still got a hefty list to get through, but I’m finding it more enjoyable now as I tick things off, rather than a repulsive list to look at. I’ve enjoyed buying and using some new tools for the wardrobe work.
Glorious morning for a frolic
A nice easy one up Bush Creek trail today, good one to get my legs back. I like to goat it up to The Steiger at the end before the backtrack to Arrowtown.
#trailrunning
Snapped a few desire lines around town.
First one connects the rec ground from the one way access road that connects to the public carpark and library. I sometimes use this on work days to have lunch at the park. Conveniently formed into steps.
Photos 2 and 3 show a line that skirts the bank around the park, and someone perched under a willow for lunch.
This one connects the footpath up at the main road to the public carpark at a lower level. There’s a bitumen ramped path not far to the right but this one is clearly popular.
Another popular line with a main bus hub around the corner. A nice garden on the right under the sign would spruce this up.
#DesireLine #desirePath #psychogeography
I went for a jog today
“Yeah, no shit, you run every day” would be the response from those close to me, but actually this is a big deal. I haven’t ran since March 20, which is 48 days, which is the longest I haven’t ran for since 2018, 6 years ago. It was Covid. I’m a late bloomer, but my time was always coming. Bloody cracker time to hit too. Dad was visiting, we had a public holiday bonanza, I had a birthday, work projects were kicking into full gear, weather was awesome. Anyway, it could be worse, and it is for a lot of people, so I won’t whinge. It is what it is, but I want to set the context.
My asthma flared up, having to use a puffer for the first time since 2019, and with it I got nausea, passed out once, headaches, ripping throat, all that fun stuff. I attempted to go back to work once, but that made things worse, then the doc put me on half days, which are about to come to an end. I think the resting has kicked it, and my jog today was a sign I’m ok. I’ll go back to the office tomorrow, finish out these half days, and fingers crossed be in full swing next week.
So the jog was awesome. I knocked off 6.9km at a surprising 5:22 /km pace. It felt comfortable so rolled with it. I went a little further than my planned 30 minutes, typical of me to extend a run to [insert next obstacle here] (it was a cattle grid) when I’m feeling good. Couldn’t help myself. I got through ok, the exertion making me take deeper breaths than usual, which felt amazing with the fresh Autumn air. The muscles are reminding me now that its been a while.
So why am I writing about this and not my stupid bloody fix-it jobs around the house? You’ve committed to fixing something every day for the month and now this? What gives?
Yeah, kinda sounds like I’m getting flakey right? You wouldn’t be wrong. I do that. But I wouldn’t be partaking in Weblog Post Month if I never got Covid and stopped running. I wouldn’t even know what the Fediverse or Mastodon was, or have a website. On a normal week I run 10-20 hours. Injuries and illness give me time back to do the less physical things, explore my nerdy side, tinker in the digi-world.
So here I am, I got sick, I adjusted.
Exploring the Fediverse and creating my digital profiles has been my substitute, keeping my brain active, providing the odd dopamine hit, connecting with new folk. Weblog Post Month in particular has aided my recovery. I chose a topic that would give me my dopamine fix but is also super practical - ticking off something around the house once a day so (hypothetically) if I suddenly dropped dead, friends and family don’t have to deal with all my crap (death cleaning), and living like I’m selling which also encourages getting things done. I’ve been careful not to overdo myself.
So, just like running kept me away from learning about the Fediverse or Weblog Post Month, instead you get this post triggered by running, and not about a new job ticked off. But don’t sweat, for the one person who read this far (hello!), this blogging thing has caught on and I think it’ll stick, no matter my running coming back into my life.
I’m not actually sure about the point of this post. Sorry.
#WeblogPoMo2024
Bunnings and Mitre 10 are becoming my second home
Got a start on the wardrobe in the spare room this afternoon. It’s quite a hefty space (850d x 800w) which is great for storage, but a pain because there isn’t any out of the box shelving fit to size. I’ve built the top shelf and clothes rack so far, without any issues. Still weighing up how to do the lower shelving though. I think I’ll just go with open melamine shelves. All the pre-made stuff is too narrow and costs an arm and a leg.
#WeblogPoMo2024
This is just embarrassing
Crusty broken lower shower seal/water channel needed replacing. Though when I removed it I realised it didn’t need one at all as there’s a lip on the shower’s base that prevents the water from exiting the area anyway. All this thing was doing was collecting mold!
All that was needed was a good scrub.
Becoming aware that I’m ticking off all the easy jobs and the bigger ones like “build pergola” and “fit out cupboards” may span a few days so I’ll consider some deeper reflection writing scattered throughout the rest of the month.
#WeblogPoMo2024