May 2019: The Good and Bad list

  • Good: Body fat down slightly
  • Bad: Weight up for the month
  • Good: Actually went jogging
  • Bad: Run featured cramps, a sore foot and a bear
  • Good: Weather much nicer than April
  • Bad: Haze from Alberta wild fires
  • Good: Recovered from Worst Cold Ever
  • Bad: Worst Cold Ever
  • I’d rather not talk about it: The amount of writing I did over the past 31 days

Weight loss report, May 2019: Up 0.9 pounds

Let’s start with the bad news: I was up 0.9 pounds for the month, due to an uptick in my weight over the last week. I was sick with The World’s Worst Cold to start the month, but took to the “feed a cold” school of self-medication, so didn’t shed the pounds as often happens when an illness strikes.

On the plus side, my trend for the month was generally downward. Snacking was down, activity was marginally up (I actually went for a run) and the plan for June is regular outdoor activity, weather-permitting (save for running, which I will do regardless of the weather, unless the weather includes forest fires, bears or hail).

I remained donut-free again.

I didn’t buy another one of those Starbucks cookies that apparently has 570 (!) calories. I have erased from my mind how yummy they are. Mostly.

Perhaps best of all, my body fat seems to be under control again, meaning my diet has probably improved, even if only by a smidgen.

I am going to predict actual weight loss again for June and not be discouraged, just like I’m going to wear sleeveless shirts and not get sunburnt.

We’ll see how skinny/tanned I am in a month.

The stats:

May 1: 167.8 pounds
May 31: 168.7 pounds (down 0.5 pounds)

Year to date: From 167.5 to 168.7 pounds (up 1.2 pounds)

And the body fat:

May 1: 19.7% (33.1 pounds of fat)
May 31: 19.7% (33 pounds of fat) (down 0.1 pounds)

The unexpected return of CoH

After reviving my new PC, I was casting about for a game to play, to take advantage of all its glorious 2019 power.

And I ended up playing a game from 2004, and it’s a game I never expected to play again—City of Heroes.

It turned out a community-run CoH server had been running stealthily for awhile now, but recent drama forced it into the open. Currently the team has moved servers (to Canada, woo), expanded their number and opened the whole thing up to the public. They are billing this version of the game Issue 26: Homecoming, incorporating the code that was on the test server and about to go live when the game development ended in August 2012, three months before shutting down entirely.

The experience of going back has been both weird and nostalgic. There are some necessary tweaks—all of the paid content has been moved to an in-game contact and is free to “buy.” Veteran Rewards essentially don’t exist. But for the most part, this is CoH as it was in 2012, with all of its improvements and similarly, all of its janky qualities faithfully preserved.

As I toodle around with new versions of old characters, I shift between the delight of playing a game I never imagined being able to play again, and being freshly irritated by its many original and questionable design decisions, like Council base maps, for example. The near-Escher design of the original office maps is worth highlighting, too. They feel like a social experiment that would end with all participants going mad and murdering each other.

At the same time, it’s still a refreshing take on the MMORPG formula. Released before WoW, it entirely ignored a lot of the familiar trappings, allowing you to take on vast groups of enemies and feel truly powerful—too powerful, in fact. The nerfs would come and this version of the game carefully preserves all of the game balance changes made over CoH’s eight year life. You can still be pretty powerful now, so it’s okay.

I have no idea how long the servers will last, so in the back of my mind I am always thinking “This could be the last chance I have to see these characters” but so far NCsoft has not applied its might in shutting it down, and efforts are underway to have them sanction an official community server. Stranger things have happened.

Finally, I will note that this unexpected appearance has definitely impacted the contributions I’ve made recently to this blog. And writing in general. Probably not a good thing. But if history repeats itself, I’ll ease up and go back to the usual excuses for not writing.

Run 607: A bear, cramps, bikes and a sore foot

Run 607
Average pace: 6:33/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 12:42 pm
Distance: 5:03 km
Time: 32:59
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 21ºC
Humidity: 52%
Wind: light
BPM: 166
Weight: 166.9 pounds
Total distance to date: 4615 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 2, iPhone 8

This run was kind of awful, but not entirely unexpectedly so.

My last run was on April 20, 36 days ago. The main reason for the long gap was The World’s Worst Cold, which visited me over three weeks ago and continues to linger on with the occasional cough and stuff clearly still in my lungs. Perhaps I had an actual lung infection and instead of getting it treated with antibiotics, I opted for the old-fashioned cure of a long, painful recovery.

In any case, the weather was dandy today and I felt it was time to get back out there.

On the plus side, I was able to start the initial walk using Siri on the Apple Watch. Of late it usually just fails, no matter what I ask, but today Siri was feeling cooperative. On the negative side,. the pace of my first km walking was over 10 minutes. This is what the imaginary scientists I pay call “really slow.” The pace did pick up, but overall it was clear I was not yet 100%–even just walking. This did not seem to bode well.

The first surprise came as I approached the bridge on the Brunette River trail. A group of cyclists had just gone past me on the left, then came to a stop short of the bridge. There was something in their body language that seemed off. I caught up and saw why they had stopped.

There was a black bear walking down the trail toward them (and me, and another jogger who came up from behind).

A cyclist wonders how tasty the black bear would find him.

Here’s a zoomed-in shot in case the bear does not seem sufficiently bear-like in the above shot:

Woods hard, trails easy.

Some of the cyclists made noise. I wanted to shout out terrible puns like, “This situation is unbearable!” or “Don’t bear with us!” We waited to see what the bear would do, but it kept slowly advancing, seemingly oblivious of us. It went up a side trail before the bridge, but returned shortly, so we continued to move back, keeping us out of snacking range. The bear crossed the bridge, then headed up another side trail. This time there was a pregnant pause and the jogger carefully crept forward on the left to see if the bear was coming back.

It seemed the bear had found something sufficiently interesting on the side trail–perhaps an unleashed dog–and was out of sight. The cyclists pedaled and the jogger and I ran, me keeping an eye behind and to the side, but the bear was not to be seen again.

This seemed like a not-so-good omen for the run and just as I entered Burnaby Lake Regional Park, my left foot began to hurt in the way it would hurt in the pre-orthotic days. I have no idea why this happened out of the blue, but before ditching the idea of running, I went to the loo and on the way back to the starting position, I recalled how it was often easier to run than to walk when the foot got like this, so I started my run.

The run was hard. Not only was I shaking off 36 days of rust, I was clearly operating at less than 100% capacity, because even the opening km was poop, with a pace of 6:36/km. For three of the next four km the pace would only vary five seconds, between 6:32 and 6:37. Somehow in the fourth km I miraculously found some kind of small energy reserve that let me push to a fast-for-this run pace of 6:25/km, before slowing down again for the final stretch.

The sore foot was no doubt a factor, though once running it was not terrible or anything, more a background annoyance. But the lack of energy was palpable. I did not get a second wind. I didn’t get a first wind. Or any wind. I slogged.

I also did something I’ve rarely ever done–twice I paused the run and walked a bit to recover stamina and get my heart rate down, totaling about half a km overall. If I had kept the run timer going, my pace would likely have been a good ten seconds or so slower.

Once I mercifully finished the run, I just wanted to get out and back home. And then I started feeling cramps in my abdomen. Not the kind you get from running too hard (not an issue today), but more like something not agreeing with you, though I had eaten nothing out of the ordinary before heading out. This cramping persisted for much of the walk out from the lake before finally easing up. By then I was so weary it made little difference.

Due to it being a sunny Sunday, the trail was crowded. At one point a bottleneck forced me to stop to let other joggers and walkers pass. I didn’t mind too much because it allowed me to restore a tiny bit of energy. It was so busy that when I stopped at a bench along the second boardwalk to dump the gravel out of my shoes, three joggers passed by from both directions. That may not sound like a lot, but trust me, it is. It only took me maybe 30 seconds to clean my shoes.

Also I’m getting new shoes. They are great gravel scoopers, but I’d like something more comfy and less prone to scooping every jagged little rock it can find and depositing it under my foot.

One of the putt-putt cars went by me post-run and I felt the driver was going a tad faster than needed, given the little room I had on the side. But a minute or so later a family of three rode by on their bikes and the thought of them catching up to the putt-putt car and being told to get off their bikes, at minimum, gladdened my heart.

Just as I was leaving the park, a pair of cyclists were studying the map and somehow reaching the conclusion that they had to go around the lake despite a very large No Cycling sign below the map. I stepped over and confirmed no cycling at the lake and that park officials were out and would likely warn them at best to dismount. I also confirmed the contradiction of the Central Valley Greenway name, as most of it is along blacktop, and directed them to the bicycle lane on Government Street. I left, but as I looked back, I could see them heading off in the direction I’d pointed. Yay nice cyclists.

Overall, then, this run was not great. Lots of complications, the potential to be mauled by a bear, and no energy at all. I have not decided when I will run next, but waiting until next weekend is not without its appeal. This was also the first run in a long time when I wished I had a running watch with more detailed stats on things like blood oxygen saturation, so I could see how off I was with real data to back up how I felt. Somehow it might make me feel a little better.

Book review: Less

Less

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I do not read a lot of Pulitzer prize-winning novels. In fact, it would be accurate to say I’ve read none.

But the 2018 winner, Less, was on sale and I said to myself, “What price would I pay to read a Pulitzer-winning novel?” And the answer was, “Less!”

Sorry.

This is a funny novel and I mean that in both common definitions of the word. It is breezy and witty, but also a bit odd in how it follows the meandering world-spanning trip of not-quite-self-discovery that Arthur Less, a soon-to-be-50 novelist, undertakes shortly after the story begins. Quirky details are the norm here and the narrator—intruding occasionally to make it clear they are an actual person telling the story, and not an omniscient unknown presence—lovingly describes the hapless Less with both affection and concern as he blunders through France, Morocco, Germany and other locations. Cast in vivid relief in the background is the imminent marriage of his younger lover Freddy, who left Less abruptly.

Less’s trip is stuffed with incidental details, side stories and diversions that somehow always prove interesting, no matter how inconsequential they initially seem, largely thanks to Greer’s droll wit and use of metaphor. Metaphor in the hands of a bad author is like expecting a five year old to whip up a seven course meal, but here Greer wields it like a master chef. Or something like that (I may be a bad writer).

Perhaps the single funniest moment (minor spoiler) is someone telling Less he is a “bad gay,” underscoring just how little he seems to understand others—or even himself.

This story certainly won’t be for everyone. The writing, though funny, is dense and detailed, and speaks of a class and world that many will only ever see from a distance, if at all. But Greer buoys the prose so beautifully, it’s difficult to not recommend, anyway. If you’re looking for an amusing examination of befuddled middle age, Less will give you that—and a little more.

View all my reviews

The cocoon effect

I have a fairly long commute to work. I take the Expo Line from Sapperton to Waterfront and travel time is 36 minutes, per the Translink site. I then transfer to the Canada Line, traveling from Waterfront to Langara-49th Avenue, another 14 minutes. That’s 50 minutes, with another 10 minutes or so spent waiting on platforms and walking, so about 60 minutes total. Not the world’s worst commute, but not exactly a trip around the block, either.

I usually pass the time in one of two ways, either listening to music (usually when I have just finished a book, or am forced to stand), or reading. I have read dozens more books than I would have otherwise thanks to this commute.

Of late, I’ve been doing something a little different. My current headphones are Jabra Moves and while they are technically on-ear, they cover my ears enough to be pseudo over-ear. This means they can cut out a decent amount of ambient noise. This is nice when listening to music, because it lets me keep the volume lower, and the actual music is just a lot easier to hear. Earbuds that don’t form a seal, like my recently-deceased AirPods, are generally terrible on the SkyTrain, because even the quietest cars are noisy, and the racket forces you to crank the volume and put yourself on course to be as deaf as Pete Townsend.

The different thing I’ve been doing is putting on the headphones and then…reading. By this, I mean, I don’t actually listen to music, I just use the headphones as makeshift ear muffs. It’s great! The headphones are comfortable enough to wear for the entire commute, they don’t block out all sound, so I can still hear loud/alarming noises, but they bring a level of tranquility to an otherwise noisy ride that I find soothing. Sometimes I don’t even read, I just put on the headphones and revel in all sound around me being muffled.

When I arrive at my destination, taking the headphones off feels like emerging back into the real world. It’s not unpleasant, exactly, but it effectively serves to let me know my time in the blissfully quiet cocoon is over.

Maybe I just need a set of cheap earplugs.

Bad design: Deliberately restrictive sales

This one is old as the hills, but tech companies are still trotting out the “enticing sale with decent discounts that excludes almost everything you’d actually want to buy” offer. This particular offer also has a bonus loot box component where the promotional email gives you a random code for a discount between 10-25%.

In this case, the offer came from Logitech. My alleged discount was 25%.

I clicked the enticing CLICK TO REVEAL button and was given the 25% off code. I’ve been thinking of acquiring a full keyboard with keypad again for times when I might want the keypad and the Logitech Craft gets good reviews–but is also ludicrously expensive, selling for around $200 Canadian most of the time. This discount would bring it down to a more palatable $150.

I then read the not-so-fine print at the bottom of the email that lists the items excluded from this offer (remember, the discount starts at a not-exactly-gigantic 10% off). There are not 33 items on the list (which would already be a lot), but a combination of 33 individual products and entire product lines:

You can buy anything that is old and cheap, however.

The Craft keyboard is among the impressive list of exclusions. Almost anything new or on the pricier side has been left off the sale. Why? Because Logitech wants you to pay full price for those. Perfectly understandable. For-profit companies like profits.

But this promotional offer–even if you overlook the skeevy loot box “What did I get?” aspect still stinks. The unspoken hope here is that the potential buyer will not read over the list of exclusions and if they try to buy something that isn’t part of the promotion, well, they’re already on the Loigtech site, so maybe they’ll end up buying something else. Or shop around and get ideas, even if they don’t buy something right then. This is questionable marketing at best, and dishonest at worst. It trains customers to not trust you when you offer something. If I got another offer from Logitech, I’d immediately ask myself, “But what’s the catch?”

But that won’t happen, because I’ve already rewarded Logitech by unsubscribing to their offers. Well done, marketing geniuses.

(The unsubscribe option is simple and didn’t even ask for a reason, which is too bad, because I wanted to tell them!)

The low tech fix

Today I began what I was convinced would be the maddening task of further troubleshooting my PC. I pulled out the ram and video card, but nothing changed.

Then I noticed a bunch of the tiny little headers on the motherboard weren’t fully plugged in. How they came unplugged, I don’t know. Even more mysteriously, the honking big header for the front USB ports was completely disconnected and sitting well away from where it would normally be plugged in. All of this was strange, but easily fixed by just making sure everything was nice and secure.

I pressed the power button…and the PC powered up without issue. Windows didn’t even report a bad shutdown or anything. Everything is working again without any parts having to be replaced, and with minimal downtime.

To this I say: Yay!