Month: December 2017

Gathering Storm

It looks like it’s finally going to be winter in Tel Aviv…

Underwear Race

Ran a 5k in a memorial charity “Underwear Race” to raise awareness for colon cancer prevention. It was wonderfully organised, a fun and colourful race in perfect running weather. We all got colourful underwear to wear over our tights (some put it on their head). Two clowns ran around the pre-race crowd, a polyp in rollerblades that cackled and hugged people, and a “doctor” in scrubs that chased after him. There was great music at the starting line, the runners were all amped up, but lovely people (no pushing, a lot of positive interactions with people in the park), and the course was a runner’s dream (flat and wide and beautiful). A “must repeat” race for me in 2018.

This weekend’s runs

Ran a 4K yesterday and a 7k today. Getting back on track after a November of travelling, and feeling pretty good about it.

Last night there was a photo shoot at the deserted beach. It wasn’t particularly cold, but it was windy. Must have made it an interesting time for the photographers, with all that sand blowing about.

Went on an early run this morning, but because of the cloud cover I couldn’t get any good shots of the sunrise.

General update

  • My to do list today is 45 items long. It’s 10AM and I still have 33 items to go.

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  • I’ve been using the Forest app for the past week to cut down on my phone time, and especially my twitter time. It’s a fun take on the Pomodoro technique that basically lets you set a timer to plan trees in your forest. The tree grows when you finish your timer without touching your phone (you can have the phone play music or a podcast while your tree is growing, you just can’t fiddle with your phone). You can also accept calls while the tree is growing, but you can’t make calls/text/check apps etc. It’s a good gamification of the Pomodoro technique, and a beautiful app.
  • I’ve finished rewriting chapter 2 and am back to rewriting large swaths of chapter 7. Forcing myself to cut ruthlessly cut things down.
  • Reading John Scalzi’s “The Human Division” and thoroughly enjoying it. Also indulging in M.C. Beaton’s “Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House,” because I can.
  • Started working on my 2018 resolutions. It’s the fourth year that I’m doing
  • My (mechanical) keyboard is creaking. It’s time to swap out the keycaps and lubricate the switches a bit.
  • Cutting down on Apple technology podcasts. Getting a bit fed up with them and more interested in podcasts with more interesting content than “guess how much I love my iPhone X”.
  • That being said, I upgraded to an iPhone 8 (not a Plus or a X on purpose), and I’m OK with it. Still frustrated that it doesn’t have a headphone jack.
  • Ran a game of Parsley that I wrote for a group of friends using Discord, and it was a roaring success. Planning on running another game like that soon.

Man on motorcycle sketch

Two minute sketch of a man about to mount his motorcycle, Jaffa flea market. Moleskine and brush pen.