Blue sky is nice for summer, but when you want mood, clouds deliver.
A few moody shots of Burnaby Lake taken after my birthday run
Month: September 2023
Run 809: A zippy birthday run
I deliberately skipped Monday’s run in order to run today–my birthday! I didn’t feel right about taking the day off and just lazing around eating goldfish crackers.
I was a bit concerned heading out, as my sleep score was a dismal 38/100 (Poor) and the Garmin summary advised “Non-restorative. You slept long enough, but not well enough to bring your stress levels down overnight. You might feel higher stress or fatigue today.” Fatigue before I even start running? Yikes.
As it turned out, though, I had one of my best runs of the summer, with only three days of summer left! How did such witchery happen? Part of it was likely due to conditions: It was only 13C when heading out, with higher humidity and plenty of clouds. Although the humidity could have been lower (there was sweating involved), the overall conditions were conducive to a good run.
My main goal was to maintain a consistent pace. I wasn’t concerned about speed pr BPM, as long as both were reasonable. My overall BPM was the same as Friday, at 157, but weirdly, despite running the “harder” counter-clockwise route, I was much faster, coming in at a brisk 5:41/km, my best pace of the summer. Yowza1Amusingly, the spell checker suggested using “Yoda” here instead!
In fact, my final km clocked in at 5:28/km! Yoda2See previous footnote!
The left knee, especially the tendon on the right side, did feel a bit stiff on the walk along the river trail, but both knees don’t feel bad as I type this now.
Overall, I am pleased with how the run turned out. Not too bad for a freshly-minted 59-year-old. 😛
Stats:
Run 809 Average pace: 5:41/km Training status: Maintaining Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 10:28 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 28:37 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 13-14ºC Humidity: 78% Wind: light BPM: 157 Weight: 165.8 Total distance to date: 5925 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (60/121/181 km)
It’s the end of the decade as I know it (and I feel fine)
Today is my birthday. As is tradition, I will not be doing anything noteworthy to celebrate. This blog post is pretty much it!
This particular birthday is a milestone in a couple of ways, one of them in a reflective sense, the other a little more morbid1Which I will address as a footnote: I have officially outlived my dad, who died at the age of 58.
I’m turning 59, which means this is the last year I will fit into that 50-59 bracket. Next year, I will officially be Old. You know how surveys always divide age groups up? I am basically at the tail end of the second-to-last group now, after that, I’ll be lumped into that amorphous group of people that spans from 60 to whatever you get to. This group is apparently a demographic that does everything the same, so it is not further subdivided. Apparently I will eat, shop, and entertain myself at 100 in the exact same way as I will at 60. I can’t wait to start listening to country music in earnest.
I don’t feel old, though. In fact, after spending all of my 50s running regularly (barring injury/snow) I feel pretty decent2The weather could be better, though. They predict only a high of 16C today and a chance of showers. Decent for running, less so for basking in the final days of summer.
And that’s really all I have to say. Here, then, is the Bitmoji version of me eating a birthday cake:
Cache me if you can
I went to upgrade my iPad to iPadOS 17 because it just came out today and I like living on the edge, and I’m also kind of dumb.
But I couldn’t, because my 128 GB iPad only had 3 GB of space left on it. I checked, and it turned out OneDrive was hogging about half the space. I found where you can clear its cache1You will never in a billion years do this accidentally and cleared the cache.
Then it took A Very Long Time to complete. But when it did, the free space went from 3 GB to over 61 GB (!)
The upgrade is in progress as I type this. It’s given me time to think about how I use my iPad Pro, which I bought a little over three year ago:
- 90% of the time it’s for Procreate2The only app I use with a worse name is Diarium
- 5% of the time I’m in a crossword puzzle app
- 3% of the time I’m checking files in OneDrive
- 2% is for everything else
So really, all I need is a good drawing tablet. Which the iPad Pro is. So I guess I’m good. (But I secretly want a Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, not because of the super unsexy name, but because it has a super sexy 14.6″ AMOLED display. A larger canvas for drawing is also super sexy. If I win the lottery, it’s mine. If I don’t, well, 12.9 inches is not bad. Hehe /Beavis.)
This site has reached new heights! (of double digits)
I got my monthly Jetpack report, dig it1Do cool kids say “dig” now? I want to be hip again. I want to be lit, or a banger, or something.:
That number of visitors translates to about 12 per day! A dozen people! That is double digits. Double digits is only one away from triple digits, and from there the sky’s the limit.
I want to thank the following for making this success possible:
- Birds
- Jogging (?)
- Lists
- Doodlings
- That writing prompt I did about a barista going back in time to kill Hitler
Top experts!
I used to subscribe to a newsletter from James Clear1This is an admittedly great name for a self-help guru to have. I obliquely made fun of him here. I dropped the newsletter because he sent a lot of mail, the advice got very samey, and ultimately it gets fatiguing to constantly read platitudes about how to be a better person, blah blah blah.
He’s back!
I received an unsolicited email from him today2CleanShot X makes this look far classier than it did in reality:
I like the unspecified use of “top experts” in the above. What are they experts in? It doesn’t matter, they’re top experts! Trust me. Actually, let’s have a look:
- Serena Williams: Top expert at tennising
- Neil Gaiman: Top expert at writing
- Gordon Ramsay: Top expert at yelling
What “small behaviors3I’m using the American spelling here and my spell checker is getting mad at me” made these experts so expertful? Let’s see:
- Serena Williams: Has probably played five thousand million hours of tennis
- Neil Gamin: Has probably written five thousand million words
- Gordon Ramsay: Has probably yelled at five thousand million people
The key to become a class master (surely the goal of a MasterClass), then, is to spend an extraordinary amount of time doing the one thing you want to be an expert at. This is prime TED Talk stuff right here. Further, the small behaviors would seem to be:
- Find something you want to do (“I want to be an expert yak herder”)
- Spend an inordinate time doing that thing
- Top Expert!
Anyway, spoiler: I did not sign up to MasterClass™.
I already did, jerk!
Birding, September 16, 2023: Hail to the Leaf
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Terra Nova (Richmond), Piper Spit (Burnaby) and Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam) Weather: Sunny, 17-25C
The Outing
We hit five places today, one for each finger!
Reifel Bird Sanctuary: It was about 17C when we arrived in the morning, but it actually never felt cool and ended rather warm, which was a nice wrap-up for our last visit to the sanctuary for this summer.
More winter migrants are arriving, with northern shovelers joining the coots. We also saw two rare birds, which was spiffy: a white-fronted goose, and four avocets. Unlike when we saw a single avocet here last fall, these four were close to one of the bird blinds, allowing us to get much better shots. There were also chickadees everywhere, right from the parking lot on forward. The wood ducks were also seen in increasing numbers and seem to be racing ahead of the mallards in getting their full breeding plumage back. Pretty boys everywhere. The geese were acting strange and weird, as always.
It was here that I made a discovery about my camera issues. A small leaf landed on the camera and I started blowing on it to get it off. Nic advised me that I could also use my hands to, you know, just lift it off. I didn’t want to do that, lest I touch something I didn’t want to touch (on the camera, that is, though I also don’t know where that leaf had been, either). It was then that the proverbial light bulb went off over my head. I regularly turn my camera off to save on battery when I am not expecting to be shooting photos for at least a few minutes. The on/off switch is right next to the dial that selects shooting modes. With the leaf gone, I looked down and thought, THIS is how I had changed modes without realizing it, by pushing on the dial when I was moving the on/off switch (they are very close together).
Now that I know this, it should happen less often. I am also experimenting with leaving the camera on all the time once I start shooting, to see how quickly I go through the batteries (I start each bird outing with three fully charged, which should always be more than I need). We’ll see how it goes!
Richmond Nature House: The feeders were still empty, so we saw no birds here, but Nic’s curiosity was sated.
Terra Nova: We did not see many birds here, but did shoot a distant heron, some gulls, a few song sparrows and I shot a bunch of planes, or fixed-wing birds, as I call them. We also shot a grebe, but it was not close and not in great light.
Piper Spit: The land mass at the spit is back, and it’s actually quite large. I expect it will grow in size as long as the dry weather holds out. Again, we saw oodles of pretty wood ducks, some coots, lots of geese, and many greater yellowlegs. Several ducks were having baths, making for some great action shots. Today, it felt like Piper Spit was coming out of its sleepy summer state, with more birds coming in and general birdiness all around.
Tlahutum Regional Park: We only visited the community garden here and observed two hummingbirds battling again), spotted some newly-returned golden-crown sparrows, some white crowns and a fleeting flicker. There was also a squirrel eating the head of a giant sunflower. And speaking of eating, three deer were helping themselves to an all-you-can-eat buffet (though we only directly saw two). Deer have freakishly giant tongues. And no manners.
By this time (closing in on 6 p.m.) we were in the golden hour, high clouds were moving in and Nic only had room for a few more dozen photos on his SD card, so we wrapped up. Still, we saw a bounty of birds, I actually got some of my best shots in a while and the weather was pleasant throughout the day.
Also, I decided to experiment and shot in both JPG and RAW. My total file size ended up being just over 21 GB. Yikes.
The Shots
Soon™
An Anna’s hummingbird to start:
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- American blackbird
- Anna’s hummingbird
- Bewick’s wren (possibly heard, but not seen)
- Black-capped chickadee
- Golden-crowned sparrow
- Northern flicker
- Song sparrow
- Spotted Towhee
- White-crowned sparrow
- Yellow-rumped warbler
Waterfowl:
- American coot
- Avocet (rare)
- Canada goose
- Gadwall
- Great blue heron
- Greater yellowlegs
- Hooded merganser
- Mallard
- Northern pintail
- Northern shoveler
- Sandhill cranes (briefly, flying overhead)
- White-fronted goose (rare)
- Wood duck
Common:
- American crow
- Ring-billed seagull
- Rock pigeon
Raptors:
- Northern harrier
Non-birds:
- Douglas, black and gray squirrels
- Deer
- Western painted turtle
- Grasshopper
- Bees ‘n dragonflies
- Various helicopters, passenger jets and seaplanes in and around YVR
Spooky mountain
I updated the gallery for September 9th’s birdingpalooza. You can view the gallery in its original post, or at the bottom of this very post.
Not included is this black and white variant of a local peak. It looks kind of spooky. I like it.
And the gallery for September 9th:
Great blue heron and common merganser passing by in the shallows.
Golden Ears Bridge as seen from Shoreline Park, Pitt Meadows.
Mountains and fields, Pitt Meadows.
Barn framed in green, near the Alouette River, Pitt Meadows.
Alouette River, Pitt Meadows.
The Alouette River is also unfortunately a bit of a dumping ground in spots for abandoned boats.
Mighty mountain.
Leaf in a stream.
Black-capped chickadee hanging out.
Near the entrance to Pitt Meadows Regional Airport.
Plane and dirt, Pitt Meadows Regional Airport.
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The best, weirdest and worst instrumentals by The Alan Parsons Project
Over the course of its ten albums, The Alan Parsons Project released 20 instrumentals, though more on their first five albums (four of which start with an instrumental and the fifth, The Turn of a Friendly Card, starts with a pseudo instrumental that runs about two minutes before the vocals begin).
What follows are lists, because I love lists!
Top 5 Favourite Instrumentals
- In the Lap of the Gods (Pyramid)
- Lucifer (Eve)
- The Gold Bug (The Turn of a Friendly Card)
- Pipeline (Ammonia Avenue) and Paseo de Gracia (Gaudi) (tie)
- Secret Garden (Eve)
Honorable Mention: Sirius (Eye in the Sky). This song is probably indelibly tied to sports team introductions now, but it’s still a terrific and dramatic intro to Eye in the Sky. “Mammagamma” from the same album is also very good, if a bit slick.
What all of the above songs have in common is atmosphere. “In the Lap of the Gods” is mysterious, soaring and melodramatic (see more here). “Lucifer” starts with somewhat unnerving strings and sound effects (including Morse code), fades, then comes back with a staccato drum and ringing guitar, before adding in the requisite choir. “The Gold Bug” does feature vocals without words, but these really serve as another instrument in a lovely, layered song. “Pipeline” is perhaps the most conventional on the list, but it’s so incredibly smooth it feels wrong to omit it. “Paseo de Gracia” ties–this closing instrumental is the only one to have a Spanish flavour, with horns and more fine guitar work by Ian Bairnson. “Secret Garden” also features worldless vocals (again by Chis Rainbow) and has a sunny, almost Beach Boys sound to its harmonies.
Top 3 Weird Instrumentals:
- Total Eclipse (I Robot)
- Chinese Whispers (Stereotomy)
- The Fall of the House of Usher (Tales of Mystery and Imagination)
Honorable Mention: The two instrumentals from I Robot that aren’t “I Robot”.
“Total Eclipse” is the only Project song solely credited to conductor Andrew Powell, and it’s this weird, almost discordant song that sounds like a portent of doom, perhaps reflecting how ancient people feared eclipses. “Chinese Whispers” is an odd, short piece featuring a vaguely Asian-sounding acoustic guitar, with Eric Woolfson’s daughters providing murmured vocals. “Usher” is the longest song the Project did at over 15 minutes, and it’s divided into movements that encompass sound effects of a storm, the house collapsing, choirs and everything else. It sounds entirely different from everything else on all ten of their albums. The two “I Robot” instrumentals, “Nucleus” and “Genesis Ch. 1 V. 32” are largely mood pieces.
Probably the Worst Instrumental:
- “Hawkeye” (Vulture Culture)
It’s not bad, per se, it’s just very bland. Without any orchestration, it leans heavily on sax and keyboard, which also helps date it as a very 80s song.
Water!
When you’re hot and thirsty (after, say, just completing a long run), there is nothing more refreshing than cool, crisp water. This is not a revelation, but it struck me when I supped from the water fountain at Hume Park post-run today.
(This is also a blatant attempt to convince myself to drink more water.)
Run 808: Feeling the day off
I took Wednesday off from running, because I had a lot of other stuff to do, and I wanted to give my legs more recovery time between runs. This meant I would have three days off between runs.
To make it easier on myself today, I ran clockwise (I am actually alternating now, but let’s pretend), which is the “easier” direction. It was slightly warmer than Monday, but humidity was also lower. Conditions were generally better. My weight was also down. All conditions good!
And yet! My pace was a bit slower (5:50 vs. 5:45) and my BPM was higher (157 vs 148). How does this happen? The body is a mysterious thing.
I actually felt fairly good while running, though. The lower humidity meant little sweating, but it was still high enough that dry mouth was not an issue. The knees behaved, and the left hip was again feeling muted. Given the higher BPM, though, I opted to not try pressing on beyond 5K. Maybe next week!
Incident-wise, there were none. For a Friday, it seemed slightly less busy than usual. Maybe I got through just before the crowds arrived. In any event, despite the higher BPM and slightly slower pace, I feel this was a pretty good run, and I had plenty of stamina left over afterwards.
Stats:
Run 808 Average pace: 5:50/km Training status: Maintaining Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 10:12 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 29:22 Weather: Sunny Temp: 19-20ºC Humidity: 57-53% Wind: light BPM: 157 Weight: 165.8 Total distance to date: 5920 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (55/108/163 km)
Unity and the No Good Very Bad URF
I’m doing something I’ve never done before on this blog: I am setting up a reminder to check back on this post on a specific date. In this case, that date is January 1, 2024, and I’m doing so because I’m really interested in what happen next in this little saga that burst into being during Apple’s iPhone event on September 12th.
Some brief background: A company called Unity makes a game engine called Unity. It is free to use and very popular–over 38,000 games on Steam use it. The company has long advertised that it is royalty-free. Larger dev teams do pay, as Unity’s enterprise subscription plan costs thousands of dollars per dev–but any revenue you make from your games is yours to keep.
This is set to change on January 1, 2024 when Unity introduces URF (they don’t call it that, but I totally do, because it’s the sound most devs make when looking at the new pricing schemes that were announced while everyone was watching the unveiling of the iPhone 15), or Unity Runtime Fee. Whatever you do, don’t call it a royalty!
Basically, if your game hits a threshold for revenue and installs, Unity will charge you a fee (to be assessed monthly) per install. For smaller games, it will be 20¢ per install. If a person installs your game on two devices? That counts as two installs and you get dinged 40¢. The install number will be based on “aggregated data” Unity gathers using proprietary means. Or, as the entire internet has correctly surmised it: Trust us!
To say this new scheme has not gone over well would be a grand understatement. Unity has already sent out corrections, clarifications and some minor walk backs, but they have, to many devs, already irreparably broken the trust between them. And even with the clarifications, you still end up with stuff like this:
- If your game is on Game Pass (Microsoft’s subscription gaming service), you, as a dev, will not have to pay the URF.
- Does this mean Game Pass games have no URF?
- URF NO!
- Unity intends to bill Microsoft.
As one YouTube channel put it: “THEY SAID DISTRIBUTORS LIKE GAMEPASS – FEES WOULD BE ON THE DISTRIBUTOR – IE: MICROSOFT – LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL OH GOD. HAHAHAHAHA”
Some devs have said they will never use Unity again. Some have even vowed to switch engines on games in progress–a huge and costly undertaking. No one is happy about this, and no one should be, because the whole plan is harebrained and ill-advised. The string of clarifications show that it was obviously pushed out without any careful thought or consideration. Unity has also deleted their TOS changes from GitHub and removed parts of its TOS, rewritten it, then, as the cherry on top of the poop cake, stated that this will apply retroactively to every game in release NOW as far as determining those minimum thresholds. It’s Vader’s “I am altering the deal” except with fewer Stormtroopers in the background.
Why is this relevant to me? Well, it intersects several of my interests: gaming and tech. Also, I have been using Unity for my own indie game, and while I would need about 50,000 new friends to hit the thresholds where I’d have to pay the URF, this is such a cosmically scummy move that I am considering moving everything to another game engine.
The two I am most strongly considering are:
- Godot
- Unreal
Technically, I have prior experience with the Unreal Engine, if you count the UT levels I made, uhm, almost 20 years ago. How much could it have changed since then, really?
The main pros for Godot are it’s open source and free, so there is no possibility of URF-like shenanigans happening. The main cons are the resources for it are far fewer than Unity, and it’s not as full-featured or simple to learn.
For Unreal, it’s also free until you generate revenue over $1 million U.S. (a boy can dream) and even then, they only take 5% of total revenue. It has a lot of resources available, but the engine is honking big, designed more for giant 3D games, and not so much 2D indie platformers. So it may be serious overkill1Serious Overkill is also the name of my Cure cover band.
For the moment, I am going through Godot’s documentation to see what I think. At this point, even a complete reversal from Unity would probably still make me hesitant to go back to it.
We’ll see what happens on January 1st, though!