The smell of summer nights
Hello friends, It’s been a while. A stranger in Discord said they read my posts so hey, this ones for you! 👍
I took a break from productivity with the yearly summer vacation, four weeks of listless lethargy. Most of it to the sound of smattering rain which meant I stayed inside a lot, not really sure where it all went but looking at my Guild Wars 2 account value for the period I think I have an idea.
Four weeks of thinking about my next project instead of just doing something, the curse of a procrastinator. I like to think I deserved the rest after a hectic start to the year. Lots of talk about layoffs at work, while still having to juggle projects and product launches, doesn’t really instill with you with confidence and calm. That’s why when I finally got to rest after scrambling to get our hugo site up and running at work I just couldn’t go home and dive right back into it for you guys. I mean this isn’t really for you, it’s for me, but I’m glad you’re along with me for the ride.
Health update
Yesterday (friday) I reached a new lowest weight of 123 kg (271 lbs), that means since I started working out again in Feb/Mar I’ve lost 26 kg (57 lbs) so I’m past the halfway mark to my next milestone of 99,9 kg’s (220 lbs).
I’ve bought a bicycle and when the weather permits I’ve been going, with absolutely no goal, just riding off into the sunset until my legs are about to give in, and then I turn around and go home. It’s been very liberating, it’s crazy how much further you can get on a bike then by foot. Just mixing up my options for cardio has also made it more fun to actually get out there. Haven’t been able to ride a bike for almost 15 years, luckily it was like…riding a bike, but I’m still being kinda careful because it goes pretty damn quick!
During July I went to Malmö to visit the surgeon on the transplant unit, this was of course very exciting and terrifying at the same time, the anticlimactic result: Still have to lose more weight; I already knew this but a part of me couldn’t help but hope. I’m rescheduled to go back there in October, I don’t think I will have reached my goal by then but I’m gonna do my best.
I’m also no longer taking metoprolol which not only lowers blood pressure but also is a beta blocker that lowers your heart rate and pulse, this was giving me problems during workouts as I struggled to “get started” and was feeling sluggish and dizzy at times because my blood pressure was dipping. Just 2-3 days after I stopped taking it I immediately felt better and that marks the 3rd blood pressure medicine I’ve been able to get off just by losing weight.
Any cool projects?
So for a while now I’ve been kinda fed up with how my workspace is being taken over by stuff. Mostly medication that has outgrown its little box i previously had it in, i was surfing around IKEA for inspiration and tried their “space planner” where I drew up my little office corner. Unfortunately their “props” tool where you could add stuff that you already own to flesh out your space was very limited but i managed to find desks of the correct size, a chair and “a computer” (which was just a monitor and keyboard).
It’s mainly the space between the desk and door that I don’t think I’m using very well. Right now I have a little shelf unit which is about as high as the desk, where I keep my NAS, some networking equipment, some old consoles, gamepads and other junk I don’t need every day. But because it’s an open shelf all the stuff collects dust and looks messy even though its “organized”, so I figured I would get a big cabinet instead, the ones in the picture are not the ones i ordered, but they are similar in size (slightly wider so the space will be used more efficiently). The most important part is that it has solid doors so that I can close them and they’ll be out of sight, out of mind.
I also got a pegboard which I can mount rails on and hang little boxes that I already own for electronics tool storage so hopefully I’ll be able to reclaim some of my desk space!
The stuff is getting delivered next week, I’m excited! Hopefully by the time I write the next post I’ll have some pictures of the new space!
Now I gotta go to bed, it was my brothers 40th yesterday and we’re celebrating tomorrow. I hope I can wear the new shirt I bought, it fit great on Friday but I was feeling kinda out of it and ended up rehydrating a little too much so theres a real chance I’m a little too swollen for it.
Be safe out there, I love you.
PS. My youtube frontpage has been completely invaded by AI slop, and I keep clicking the videos because it’s always anime girls with their ass out. They just make a shitty live wallpaper and steal music from small artists, and post long ass compilation videos that give them bigger revenue (i guess? I have no idea how YT revenue works). But this has turned me on to a new genre, I don’t know what to call it, it’s Shamisen (traditional japanese string instrument) combined with like.. lo-fi? trap? whatever it’s called it’s a BOP.
See example below by artist SENZO, song name is “Rengoku”, what’s the name of this genre?