Anotherblog

Mods to weird diet

Jade convinced me to try a modification of my weird “no sweet things if over 85kg” diet - on Wednesday last week I added “and only fruit or fruit juice if between 84kg and 85kg.” The intention of this transition period is that I don’t suffer the big sugar low that usually occurs when I go over. And it works! At least, over the last few days I went from 85kg to 84kg, and today I can have sweet things. One of the other nice side-effects is that I’m having more fruit; mandarins are in season and quite yummy.

Guitar & Archery

I’ve been playing a lot of classical guitar lately, as a really enjoyable procrastination activity. Over the past three or four weeks I’ve been gradually driving up the speed at which I can play tremolo (rapid repetition of a single note) with satisfying results, such that I can now start to play a piece I once thought completely impossible for me. Having said that, it’s still a long, long way from being any good. My target is approximately three to four times faster than I can currently do, which at the moment seems impossible, except that I’ve heard it done.

The really tricky bit is just how much my arm and back tense up when I try to play quickly. I have to keep stopping, untense, reduce the speed, and play again concentrating on keeping relaxed. As soon as I concentrate on something else, back it comes.

Still, I’m definitely at peak form at the moment. I’ve never been able to play guitar better than I can now, and that feels good. In archery, by contrast, my strength is down from peak, and although I did some exercises on Saturday and went to Olympic park on Sunday I was still unable to shoot for very long, or with great accuracy. This is the period in which historically I’ve abandoned an activity, but I really enjoyed the archery on Sunday even though I couldn’t shoot for long. I’m fine with reduced intensity and lesser scores; I’m still getting enough enjoyment out of archery to keep doing it, although I’m increasingly reluctant to drive all the way to Olympic Park *just* for archery. But Jon & Kate our out in that direction, and so is Jade, so not too much problem there.

Time wave

My right index fingernail is long enough to play guitar again, and I’ve been greatly enjoying doing so. Ah! However, due to the mediocre weather and strong desire to spend time with Jade, I have been missing archery. Am I now at the point where archery becomes an ex-hobby? One supporting issue is that the less I shoot, the harder it becomes when I *do* shoot. Tricky. I keep intending to put the bow together at home and do some exercises, but then I don’t do it. Not enough time.

That’s another thing, really. Time is slipping by so very quickly at the moment; the future looms enormous and crashes down every day so that it is now the weekend, and where did the week go?

Not that I’m complaining. “Not enough time to do everything” is hardly a complaint; more a symptom of complete lack of boredom. And I really, really hate boredom.

Cousin Kat coming to stay

Well, it’s delayed by a week, but Cousin Kat is arriving in about two weeks. I’m looking forward to it. The extra time should be enough to do some of the household repairs (in particular, fixing the spare room door) and spend quality alone-time with Jade.

Meanwhile, my friend from Townsville, Sandor is arriving for two days along with his family, prior to their big US trip. I haven’t seen Sandor in *years*.

The talented Mr. Potter

That rascally Mr. Potter - whenever will he leave alone poor old Professor Snape? Still, we love his little japes. Hee hee!

Jade and I spend much of the weekend curled up together reading our copies of the new Harry Potter book. Or rather, we watched a bit of Boston Legal, and made some prints off a linocut Jade made for me, and started preparing a one-on-one roleplaying game to play together. Then on Sunday afternoon we finally got around to getting the Harry Potter and reading it. I’m up to page 400 or so. It’s rather good, so far, better than the previous two at least. I think much of the reason for the rush to buy and read as fast as possible is the fear of some unpleasant person spoiling it for us. It seems to be becoming a sport.

Also, Mr DMM published podcast #11, based on an idea we had together at lunchtime. I reckon it’s a really good one.

Back finally better

My back is finally good again, and my finger is fully healed, and apart from a minor cold, I’m on the way back to normal service, except for a broken nail. The broken nail is my right index finger, and I mention it only because it is preventing me from playing classical guitar at the moment.

So, I went to archery on Saturday, for the first time in a while. I have been going sporadically recently - a combination of holidays and the bad back - and I can’t help wondering whether this is the natural decay of interest that will mean in one year’s time the archery set will be sitting in a cupboard. The break has certainly meant that my fitness has gone down, and I’m not shooting as well as at my peak. I would have to shoot twice a week to really get properly into shape again, but it’s winter and who wants to get up that early? Not me. On the other hand, I greatly enjoyed going on Saturday. It’s still my meditation of choice.

My current obsession is ajax. It’s a web push technology I’m using to code up a php/javascript/mysql online game. More on this once it gets a little more mature - I’ve only been working on it for a week or two. It is, however, based on ideas I had ages ago, but never got around to implementing until now. No idea where my old notes are; I’m just working from memory at the moment.

Oh, and I saw Harry Potter and was very pleasantly surprised. They turned a very rambly book into a good film, one of my favorites of the series.