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I am in Poland, loving the cooler Summer here. I have a flight booked for the middle of August, but first, my holidays will be coming up!. I am looking forward to be a turist, rest and recovery.
I finished reading “The Maniac” by Benjamín Labatut. I have moved on to a classic: "Thinking, fast and slow" by Daniel Kahneman.
I've been writing a new sci-fi story! It's not my usual style, or my usual setting, but still better than nothing. Even if it goes nowhere in the end. Though I keep coming up with ideas, so who knows. To think it all started with a joke post on Mastodon.
(Spoiler: it didn't go anywhere after all. Oh well.)
Anyway, until then, there have been more heatwaves. The current one is pretty bad, but about to end. Been slowly chipping away at chores and errands regardless. Trying to update my personal wiki a little, too. Just enough to let people know it's not completely abandoned yet. Oh, and my link-directory wiki has inspired someone to make something similar! Recognition is always a good feeling.
Can't believe this year is more than half over already. Summer is always too short. At least I got to go on my yearly trip to visit relatives and change the air for a few days.
This July I'm finally getting rid of some old cruft from the website. Not sure what will replace all that stuff. Maybe some art; all my other sites have art sections now. But first I have to up my game and make more of it.
The cicadas are done for the summer; cricket season has started. Too bad I can only hear them with one ear. The other one works fine, except for high frequencies.
Oh yeah, a new heatwave just started. That's, what, the third in less than six weeks? Either way, this one's bad. It broke all records elsewhere, almost did here, and is set to continue in some places. Comparing notes with friends in distant lands is surreal.
Last but not least, I'm finally done going to the dentist for this year. Never mind the expense, it's been a very stressful July just when I really didn't need that.
I've received a few messages asking about workout plans, and like I've said before, I am the last person you want to take advice from. I'm merely writing these down for the sake of being able to look back on what I tried. My aim in all this is to build just enough upperbody strength so that I can do a muscle-up when spring rolls in. Unless you're already somewhat deep into your calisthenics journey, I wouldn't try replicating any of this.
We're already a few weeks deep into summer, so I want to look back at how working out aboard actually worked out. Our life aboard has been much too chaotic to allow for any kind of pattern, so I can't say that I've developed anything like a routine, but these are the predictably recurring exercises that I've enjoyed doing every single day:
I've managed to miss writing an update last month, I've been a bit distracted due to all of the traveling. Since leaving Texada Island we've sailed to the San Juan Islands, and then over to Ucluelet on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. There are a lot of beautiful places on this coast. We were lucky to have seen plenty of orcas, and 1 very young and energetic humpback whale. I wish that we'd had less weather while in Ucluelet, but it's a really lovely place. We visited the Ukee catch-and-release aquarium, saw many beautiful anemones, sea cucumbers and several different species of fish, all native to Clayoquot and Barkley Sound.
On our return in the Gulf Islands, we dropped the hook near friends. We have been enjoying some quiet time since then, catching up on projects, going on hikes, working my way to making 5 pull-ups(SO close!).
HEALTH. I'm happy to report that since my last update, I can do about 4 pull-ups! The quality of the 4th one varies, depending on how much energy I have. I've also been training with a resistance band on the side. It was a good idea to get one for the summer, it is a good way to combat restlessness when going to shore is not possible.
We are currently moored near an island with many good trails, so we have plenty of options.
ART. I released a new rabbit waves page called Boatswain's Call. All the traveling has left me with little time to produce larger and more complex projects, and so I focused on making many small rabbit portraits(punk rabbits). I'm hoping to make 100 of these, as a personal challenge.
Dev & I also worked on a small but difficult game called Polycat(yes, based on mindbird's polycat).
BOOKS. I read Girl's Last Tour, a manga by Tsukumizu. It is a beautiful story which tackles some very difficult and heavy topics. It is about resilience, companionship, just living one day at a time, creating all the while, doing the best that we can with the time we've got. Humanity will create to the end, even when the end is within sight. There is something both sad and remarkable about this. I was in tears when I finished it. It destroyed me. I was all but useless after that for the rest of the day. I recommend it, but maybe make sure you've got a comfy blanket or a warm body nearby to cuddle up into, you'll need it.
MOVIE. I finished watched Better Call Saul. Yes, many years after its release(it takes me a while). What a fantastic show! I love Jimmy and Kim's relationship. I love the respect that he has for her, it burns bright throughout the series and it is amazing. Kim isn't perfect, but she is accountable, and that is so, so rare, especially for someone who's actions have hurt a lot of people. It was exciting throughout, and has a well-crafted ending.
A friend had Devine & I watch Buckaroo Banzai. I still don't know what I think about it, it is the type of movie that requires a second, and maybe third watch, not because it's confusing but because it is very odd and because there are too many details to look at. It is amazing to think that someone greenlit this movie. Many lines do not make sense, the plot is full of holes, but the sets are fun, the choice of outfits is fantastic, and seeing a younger John Lithgow overacting and speaking with a bad Italian accent is very entertaining.
If you are under 30 years old and picking a font size for something other people need to read, not just yourself: that’s too small. Still too small. A LITTLE BIGGER.Ababidea on Mastodon
GREAT FINDS OF THE MONTH
My bad habits lead to me staying in my bedroom for way more time than I should; it’s been a while since I talked to a stranger, met a new person, felt sincere joy. I’m starting to worry, as summer is already more than halfway, and I fear it will be another year without a girlfriend and with no close friend to whom talk freely about this.
I remember that, when I was 14 or 15, a classmate of mine made me play a silly psychological game. She asked me: “What’s your ideal home like?”. To which I replied my home would be a modern apartment with neutral colours, at the edge of a big city; and it should have a room for guests. “Is there anybody in your guest room?”. “Not at the moment”. Man, the room I’m in right now is a perfect, almost too perfect, incarnation of what I had described at the time. And I don’t like it at all, if only for the fact that I feel lonely in a way that I didn’t think possible.
Spent a few days making Polycat with Rek for Catjam 2025. It was a nice distraction from the Uxn book and an opportunity for us to make a little platformer together. We worked on the game during our sail up the west coast of Vancouver Island on our way to Ucluelet. We had a few days of downtime along the way, when we were anchored and surrounded by hummingbirds, making sure that our strange little cat could make it over the obstacles.
