Wet Sunday afternoon so glad to be indoors. Short run this morning and now a nice quiet afternoon getting on with things in the house.
Also currently being sat on by next door’s cat as he sneaked in earlier and I don’t have the heart to put him out in the rain! Will keep an eye out for a break in the weather.
A day of mugginess, work, the soundtrack of Geth playing videogames and being a cat bed for next door’s cat. Feeling a bit out of sorts at the moment, which always tends to happen at this point in the summer.
On the plus side, I managed a run longer than a mile this morning, which is something! I’m still feeling a bit fatigued in that respect but the run did feel nice.
I am still making my way through the TechUp course and learning a little bit more about Python every day. It’s a gradual process and some days I feel like it’s going in one ear and out the other, but I know from experience that it will sink in with practice! We’re moving onto testing modules this week and there was a really interesting lecture on it this evening. I still think I prefer the development side of things, but it’s given me some things to think about.
I’m still buzzing from making my four-hours-to-code-it Petite Mort game for EctoComp. It was so much fun to be able to squeeze in a bite-size piece of Adventuron coding in the middle of everything else that’s going on at the moment! I’m getting some nice feedback and some useful reports of bugs to fix for my post-competition release. I’m now hoping to do the same with a small PunyInform game for the jam they’re holding this month – I’m getting a tiny bit done every day and counting it as my NaNoWriMo this year! It’s so important to be able to spend a bit of time with my creative projects even when I’m super busy with other things.
As is standard for the autumn, day job work has quietened down a bit recently – which is absolutely fine by me, as I wouldn’t be able to fit all my studying in if business was as manic as it was in the summer. I’m still getting a chunk every week, but it’s at a nice manageable level.
The next week or so is quite busy with running events and gigs. I’m excited for all of it! And also for next weekend when I will return to my regularly scheduled dozing. The return to near-normality is nice but it can feel a little overwhelming to be suddenly doing All The Things.
The strange brief heatwave that made its way through the UK this week only showed its face in Newcastle on Wednesday, and that was quite enough for me. I’m done with hot weather now! Looking forward to cooler conditions for autumn running. It’s meant to be 13°C and cloudy on Sunday for the GNR and I really hope the forecast is right.
I made a decision earlier this week that I wouldn’t do the 22-mile run I’d scheduled for this week and would instead treat my 18-miler from a couple of weeks ago as my longest long run for the marathon. My body is telling me very loudly that a five-week taper is more likely to get me to the start line in one piece than a three-week taper, so I’m going to listen to it. I’ve got the GNR (13.1 miles) on Sunday, will do either eight or six miles next Thursday depending on how I’m feeling post-race, and six the week after, then a nice ten-day period of only doing mile-and-a-half streak savers and slow gentle parkruns leading up to the marathon. Fingers crossed it will all go according to plan.
This time next week I am hoping to report back on a slow but enjoyable GNR completion, two very long-awaited concerts, and the bulk of a game coded!
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Republica – ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’
Sunday
The Beatles – ‘Hey Jude’
Tom Jones – ‘Delilah’
Monday
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Town’
Tuesday
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Town’
Wednesday
Boston – ‘More Than A Feeling’
Soft Cell – ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’
Thursday
Girls Aloud – ‘Something New’*
Friday
The Human League – ‘Being Boiled’
*RIP Sarah Harding.
I found myself burning out a bit this week. The last couple of months have been very productive but also a bit manic, and I’ve realised I need a bit of a break, so I’ve pared down a few of my activities. I log daily or weekly streaks for just about everything I do, because I find it’s the only way I can keep up with things – I’m very obsessional about my hobbies but also very fickle, so I’ll spend a few weeks obsessed with playing videogames and then a few weeks obsessed with making games instead and then a few weeks where running is my main passion… Maintaining daily streaks such as my run streak is the best way I’ve found to make sure that hobbies don’t get neglected during times when they’re not my main ‘thing’. However, when I have a lot of these streaks going, they become overwhelming and take over my life. As such, sometimes I have to decide to let go of some of them, and that can be really hard when I’ve put so much effort into keeping the streak going for so long.
This week I had to quit the Fetchpoint game again. The game involves going out every day and collecting tokens, including a red bug token that appears daily in your local circle and needs to be collected and taken out of the circle in order to be ‘squished’. You get bonus points for a bug-free circle at the end of the day and minus points if there are any bugs remaining. If you squish your bug for thirty days in a row, you get a badge. I have been chasing this badge for a long time and very nearly had it in September – unfortunately, after I ran the Virtual GNR, I felt too ill to collect my bug for that day and so the attempt came to an end. I started playing again in March to make a fresh attempt, but other areas of life have meant that some days I just don’t have time for the two-hour walk that a bug hunt often requires. It’s been a frustrating experience, and so I’ve given up again for the time being. Hopefully there’ll be a time in the summer or autumn when things are a bit quieter.
I’m looking forward to a quiet bank holiday weekend. A bit of running and walking, but mainly just sitting on my sofa with my game code 🙂
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Michael Land – ‘On The Hill’
Sia – ‘Cheap Thrills’
MC Hammer – ‘U Can’t Touch This’
And a bonus track that Geth was humming that day:
Michael Land – ‘Phatt Island Waterfall’
Sunday
Michael Land – ‘Upstairs At The Hotel’
Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé – ‘Barcelona’
Public Image Ltd. – ‘Rise’
Levellers – ‘Julie’
Monday
Dee Cooke – ‘Control Room’
Michael Land – ‘On The Hill’
MC Hammer – ‘U Can’t Touch This’
Michael Land – ‘Upstairs At The Hotel’
Tuesday
Michael Land – ‘Upstairs At The Hotel’
Princess Superstar and The High & Mighty – ‘Bad Babysitter’
Wednesday
Dee Cooke – ‘Control Room’
Pride & Fall – ‘December’
Michael Land – ‘On The Hill’
Thursday
Michael Land – ‘The Barbery Coast’
Friday
Cole Porter – ‘Anything Goes’
Michael Land – ‘On The Hill’
Back to the usual mile (and a bit) route today…
…as I finally felt like I could face it again after Sunday!
Other than my short run, I’ve not been out today. I’ve finally had the opportunity to catch up with a bit of admin this afternoon, and am now spending the evening enjoying some catchup TV athletics from the last few days!
Another nice quiet day tomorrow.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Avril Lavigne – ‘What The Hell?’
Duran Duran – ‘Hungry Like The Wolf’
Another set of multiple miles today…
…and so far it’s feeling really good. It’s not tiring me out or putting too much pressure on my legs, and I’m feeling a lot more confident that I’ll be able to keep going with it every hour on challenge day. I’m giving myself two hours between runs while doing this training this week, and after I’ve had a few days off at the start of next week, I’ll be practising with one hour between runs in order to replicate what I’ll be doing on the day.
In between runs, I’ve been getting on with my day job project and my decor project, which are the two other main things I’ve got going on this week. I’m really looking forward to being able to share the decor project at the weekend, once it’s all up on the wall!
Another near-identical day tomorrow. I’m (genuinely) excited!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Sacre – ‘The London Marathon [Theme From The Trap]’
Queen – ‘Bicycle Race’
Back to the mile this morning…
…and now for a day off, as I was slightly busier over the weekend and so I made sure to get most of today’s stuff done yesterday in order that I could have a proper day on the sofa playing videogames today. See you tomorrow!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Russ Abbot – ‘Atmosphere’
Yoko Shimomura – ‘Colony 9’
The Carpenters – ‘Top Of The World’
Duran Duran – ‘Shadows On Your Side’
I did one last run in the heat this morning…
…before the sun disappeared this afternoon. Looks like we’ll be having some cooler weather for a while!
I’ve been making a few test minigames in preparation for the next game jam today. I’ll be working on those for the next couple of days just to make sure I know what I’m doing, as there are a few limitations that need to be worked around this time.
At least the sunshine disappearing means that I don’t feel guilty for not being out in it!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Levellers – ‘Julie’
Michael Land – ‘On The Hill’
Michael Land – ‘The Barbery Coast’