Weeknote 15/2024
In my own way, this feel like livin’
Come Back to Earth (Mac Miller)
Some alternate reality
And I was drownin’, but now I’m swimmin’
Through stressful waters to relief
We’ve now exchanged contracts on the house we’re buying, and will be moving next weekend. The sense of relief Chez Belshaw is palpable as things are never sure until this stage. We would have liked to have moved earlier, especially as the Easter holidays for the kids end tomorrow, but I’m continuing to channel my inner Epictetus.
This is the end of my second week off work. Last week, I felt better after having a cold, or Covid, or something during the last few days I was at work. This week, I’ve either caught something different, or what I had’s come back with a vengeance. It’s weird: I ran Monday and Wednesday and went to the gym on Tuesday; everything was fine. Then from Thursday to today I’ve been sick. I could do without it, to be honest.
I’m not a great patient, so I’ve been drinking full cafetieres of coffee and getting my MSc assignment done. It is indeed written, although weighing in at 6,500 words instead of the 4,000 word limit. While my tutor says she’s never known anyone be penalised for going over the limit, I should probably spend a couple of hours cutting out some waffle. It’s due on April 23rd, but ideally I’ll submit before we move house.
Without replying to anyone, I’ve glanced at work emails and Slack as a distraction from writing, and noticed that Laura published a post we collaborated on before I went on holiday entitled Examining the Roots: Unpacking the foundations of Verifiable Credentials. It looks like she’s also published the next couple of episodes of Season 9 of our podcast, The Tao of WAO.
Erm, other things to report? I saw Dune 2 with my son at the cinema last night. Visually absolutely incredible, but it didn’t really do anything for me on a visceral level. Perhaps, as I mentioned on the journey home, it’s because I’m now at an age where I don’t identify with the main protagonist. Or maybe I just find it difficult to sit still for almost three hours.
I wrote a pretty niche post about exporting blog data to a format to make it easier to use with LLMs like ChatGPT. I published some things on Thought Shrapnel. I bought a Pixel Fold for less than half of the list price and installed GrapheneOS. I packed and moved some boxes. I took my kids to football and basketball training/games. (My son’s basketball game was particularly exciting, coming back from 20 points down against the team he used to play for, to draw in the last few seconds.)
I’ve nearly finished Ethan Mollick’s Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI. It’s pretty good, although it doesn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already know. Definitely useful to pass on to others, though, which is one of the advantages of buying dead tree books. I’m also reading one of the most recent Jack Reacher novels, and although the early ones are clearly much better, they’re an easy read and way to switch off.
Image: two boxes stacked in the living room of our current rented house, with clothes drying wherever we can find space.
