The last Friday of October

Two days until Halloween. The Pumpkin King had his first lollipop while trick or treating at the zoo last weekend. When I gave him another after nap yesterday, his eyes grew wide, and his joy went viral. He and the mischievous Loki are fired up for Halloween, and we can’t wait to go trick or treating with them. 

Looking to November, I’m paring down my trackable goals to three. 

1. Exercise for at least 20 minutes

2. Log Calories

3. Write fiction

In any given month, I track 5-7 habits daily. It builds habits and spurs progress. Although I reduced the number of goals, the difficulty level ratchets way up. 

I’ve decided to take part in Nanowrimo for the first time in nearly a decade. In short, Nanowrimo, or National Novel Writing Month, values volume over perfection. The win condition is to produce 50,000 words of a novel in the month. A few things. 50k words is a very ambitious number for 30 days. It also isn’t an entire novel. While the definition varies, most novels sit between 70k and 100k words.

My very ambitious goal is to churn out a very rough draft of a novel through November and December. “Win” Nanowrimo, and then carry on in December for at least another 25k words and a discernable end to the story I’d like to tell. 

I’ll be sure to update word counts here weekly, and you can watch me sink or swim. 

Otherwise, I plan to squeeze in at least 20 minutes of exercise daily and get back on the My Fitness Pal bandwagon. My general diet and exercise have definitely slipped the past two months, and any reasonable prospect of writing success will come hand in hand with the structure, routine, and energy that I get from regular exercise. 

So there’s that. As long as the standard set in my parenting, partnering, and work can be maintained, everything else is flexible while I try to get this done. 

It’s going to be... fun. 

Currently reading: The Best of Me by David Sedaris, Several short sentences about writing, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Also am 20% through Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings. A book I didn’t intend to pick up but have gotten sucked in despite its frightening length. >1100 pages. 

Shelved: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Project Hail Mary. I’ll be returning to both, but likely not until 2022. 

Finished: Nothing. Again

Spooky Season and small updates

That was short-lived. The old but new to me laptop trackpad broke. Alas, it heads back to the seller today, with the promise that it or a replacement will find its way to me within a few days of receipt. Unfortunately, this likely means that my plan to write a novel exclusively on the little laptop that could isn’t going to happen, as I plan to start on November 1st. But this is the inherent risk of buying an aged and inexpensive device from a reseller. I am happy that I went through a well-reviewed vendor, and the problem should be only an inconvenience. 

In other news, we brought the kids to a jack-o-lantern spectacular last Saturday night that was an absolute blast. The Pumpkin King (our 3-year-old) was over the moon and walked through the entire event with eyes wide and mouth agape. Meanwhile, I pushed an empty stroller while the Mischievous Loki (my 1.5-year-old) took his preferred place on my shoulders. The Minimeis was one of those purchases that we doubted would work out, but Loki and I love it, and it gets used every time we go out. 

On the topic of child transportation, this trip convinced us to finally retire and donate the strollers. In their stead, we’ve picked up a collapsible push/pull wagon, which is a whole new rabbit hole I didn’t know existed. Fortunately, Laura talked me down from one of these monstrosities. We got a much more modest and reasonably equipped set of wheels from the original “Little Red Wagon” company, Radio Flyer. It arrives tomorrow, and we’ll immediately put it to the test on a local trick-or-treat outing Saturday. Followed by our usual Sunday walk of about three miles. Maybe it will convince Loki to climb down from his throne. 

Beyond that, the week held few surprises. The glory and pain of this year’s Red Sox continue in the ALCS, and work has thrown up some twists as we juggle feature releases and a new customer marketing strategy. Lastly, I started a new exercise/personal development challenge that carries through the end of the year. Tired but happy. 

Currently reading: The Best of Me by David Sedaris, Several short sentences about writing, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Project Hail Mary, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Shelved: Nothing

Finished: Nothing. Again

One Year of Peloton, Misc and Sundry

This week marked a full year of Peloton Bike+ ownership. You can read more about my experience with Peloton here, but on its anniversary wanted to drop a few quick notes. 

Between Laura and I, we’ve ridden the bike a total of 371 times in 365 days, and it has held up great. One of the pedals wore down and failed, but it only took a few minutes with Peloton chat support to have another shipped over. 

I’ve personally taken 202 rides and completed an additional 90 workouts through the platform. Predominantly stretches and body strength exercises. 

While cycling to nowhere can grow old, I appreciate that they keep adding new ways to use the bike. I've recently gravitated to scenic rides. Rather than having an instructor shout out instructions from a studio environment. A scenic ride is exactly what the name says. You choose one of several cities or countrysides offered and pedal across the landscape. These rides can be based on time, distance, or even guided by an instructor. I typically mute the bike audio and play a podcast or audiobook while pedaling along, and find it very relaxing. Next year, they’re reportedly taking gamification to the next level, with a Guitar Hero-styled video game mode. I’m excited about that too, even though I still enjoy taking classes from my favorite instructors. 

My one gripe is that the Apple HealthKit integration is hit or miss. The watch disconnected early a few times mid-ride, and getting it to pair initially is often a coin flip, where I need to restart the watch, bike, or both to get it working. That, and the watch isn’t supported for any of the boot camp or strength style classes, when activated from the bike. Which is annoying. We bought the plus version of the bike explicitly for HealthKit integration and the swivel screen, and it’s annoying that we can’t make use of either. 

Otherwise, couldn’t be happier. I still work out most days, but no longer chase the Peloton driven metrics specifically, and have been using Apple Fitness and some self-directed weight lifting programs as well. I'm confident that if we didn’t have the bike, I would never have developed fitness as a habit again, and would still be at least fifty pounds heavier. 

Nothing else drastic on the week. Shef the younger joined me for several work meetings on Tuesday, and he delighted in talking with all my co-workers.

Kratos is quarantined with a litter box in our bedroom. So, it has been a delight sleeping in there, but he continues to heal as hoped. 

The new old computer still thrills me, and although my writing output hasn’t changed, I’m trying to post here more frequently. On that front, I finally customized the CSS on this blog to prevent the text from spanning across the entire browser window. I hope it makes for a more pleasurable reading experience. 

That’s it for the week! 

—-

Currently reading: Several short sentences about writing, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Project Hail Mary, and still, The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Shelved: Heroes Reborn (Marvel Comic Limited Series) Stopped after issue 3. 

Finished: Nothing!

About a Cat

It just takes a glance at my last post to know that I had a lot of aspirations for this week and month.

Insert whatever cliche you want, but things came up.

Some of these incursions were great!

Impromptu pumpkin picking with the kids on Sunday. We were doing a quick trip to a nearby church to pick up pumpkins for sale, but they were shut down for the day so we made a proper run to a local family friendly farm. The boys and our pup, Freya, got to hang out with donkeys and cows, and quite literally sprawl in a sea of pumpkins. We brought seven home. They adorn our front step. Little Shef loves them.

Then the raucous wild card game between the Red Sox and Yankees on Tuesday night. Each season I buy a new Red Sox hat. By September the blue dye has faded to gray, and the sweat and sun stains mark the retirement of ball caps for the end of the next year. I’m excited to get more mileage out of this hat and hope they can win against the odds in Tampa, though last night was a poor start.

Putting together little Luke’s balance bike and having both boys cruise around in the parking lot. These kids are growing fast and moving quick.

Other things were less good.

Luke got the inevitable cold from the wedding and/or pumpkin picking excursions from the weekend. So there have been fevers, long nights, doctor and pharmacy visits. He seems to have mostly kicked it, and as of this writing is back up to maximum levels of mischievousness.

Then there is the cat. Kratos. While getting the boys up for a bath on Wednesday night I found him sprawled and howling in Luke’s bedroom. His rear legs weren’t working and he was practically barking in pain. We rushed him to an animal hospital and he has some serious urinary blocking issues. The long and short of it is that he still should make it through, and could return home as early as tonight.

Kratos means a lot to us. He is the first creature that Laura and I have cared for, and we adopted him, skinny, scraggly, a recent amputee, from the MSPCA in Boston. That first night he slept between the two of us, and he has been with us at every life milestone since.


Kratos is a great cat. Shockingly tolerant of the kids, less tolerant of the dog, and always up for a good ear scratch. Of all the pets he is best in tune with the moods and emotions of the house. Whenever someone is upset, he’ll deign to stop by for a cuddle. When our security alarm goes off in the middle of the night, he races down the stairs with me to see what’s going on, while Freya cowers in bed.

I’m tremendously glad that he’ll be coming home. But it was another reminder about the fragility of our day-to-day. 



Currently reading: Heroes Reborn (Marvel Comic Limited Series) Several short sentences about writing, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Project Hail Mary, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Friday Recap - 10.01.21

Well, that may have been the start of something.

After an August with extensive, writing, exercising, and not drinking, a much quieter September was desperately in order. September began with a proper adult vacation. Replete with eating, drinking, and sleeping in. It was the first time in 4+ years Laura and I went away without any kids or friends or work obligations, and it was bliss.

I took it easy on personal goals for the rest of the month. The day job leaked at the seams. My workload there left me little time to breathe, except for spending time with the kids, and some reading.

I’m proud of the work that got done though, and it caps off the first six months at this job. Owning a sizable chunk of the marketing work for the business is rewarding. In a few months, we’ve shipped more cool plays than I thought possible in that timeframe. More importantly, some of the bigger technical impediments to my work are finally beginning to crumble away. Leaving optimism that the next six months will be even stronger.

That said, the volume of work and some childcare coverage issues had a deleterious effect on my mood. I recorded 10 depressive days, 12 neutral, and 8 positives. Most of the positive days clustered around vacation.

Next month will be a more balanced effort, and I’ll be back on the daily exercise and writing regimens that are equal parts tiring and a serotonin drip. I’m building up for another run at Nanowrimo this year, after a multi-year absence. I’m less fixated on completing the full 50,000-word goal in a month but have the ambitious goal of getting the first draft of a novel done by Christmas, likely around 70-80k words. To prep, evenings in October will be for brainstorming, outlining, and blogging, as I build-up to the task.

After shelving Tools of Titans after about 40 pages, I finished four books in September. The audiobook version of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, and three fantasy novels on eink: Mockingbird, King Bullet, and The Blacktongue Thief by Chuck Wendig, Richard Kadrey, and Christopher Buelman respectively.

The Blacktongue Thief is particularly great, an epic fantasy novel that reverberates on the same frequency as the Lies of Locke Lakora by Stephen Lynch, and to a lesser extent, Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles. It’s the first novel I’ve read in some time that I hated putting down and stole pages in the spare moments of the day.

Nothing else of note. Some lost dogs in the area, a squatter trying to move into the rundown property next door, and the electrical issues in the basement were finally solved.

Let’s get into Fall properly.

Currently reading: Several short sentences about writing, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Project Hail Mary, and still, The Omnivore’s Dilemma.