The inevitable result of drinking and computing

Drinking soda, that is.

I am left-handed and as such I always have a coaster to the left of my keyboard with a beverage in it, to slake my thirst as I toil away looking on the internet for the very best cat pictures to post.

There was always the inherent risk that one day I would knock over the beverage, causing at the very least a big mess and possibly damaging computer-related stuff at worst.

That day was today. It was the classic nerd scenario–I had eaten a few Goldfish crackers (I know, I know) and because my left hand was covered in fish residue, I reached over crossways to get my drink with my right hand and managed instead to knock it over, as if I’d spent the afternoon imbibing Jim Beam and not SodaStream Diet Cola.

The cola spilled over the left third of the desk and onto the Alex set of drawers next to it. It ran down the sides of both sets of drawers. It pooled onto the carpet. It dribbled onto the handles of the drawers, which are cutouts and not actual handles. Worst of all, it sprayed all over my MacBook Air, less than a month old.

The first thing I did was unplug the Thunderbolt cable to the Air and tilt it to let the liquid pour off. I rushed it like a trauma victim to the kitchen and toweled off the case. I then set it on the counter and opened the lid, not knowing what to expect.

Inside it was dry–not a single drop had gotten into the interior, not even a tiny bead of cola along the edge anywhere. The Air survived. Yay.

The only other real casualties were the two boxes of Sharpies, which got soaked with cola. Fortunately, the soaking stopped short of penetrating all the way through, so the Sharpies emerged dry.

The clean-up took about half an hour and on the plus side, I got a spot out of the carpet while I scrubbed away at it. I have checked and re-checked every affected surface, and I’m reasonably confident I got everything.

As for keeping a beverage on the computer desk? No more. But what if I get thirsty? Will I need to start using sippy cups? Have to actually get up to get a drink? Install a water fountain?

No, instead I put a fresh coaster on the window sill to my right, which will now hold my beverage. If I knock it over there the worst casualty will be the carpet, which will not (to my knowledge) short-circuit and require costly repairs if cola lands on it.

Let this be a lesson to everyone: You can’t have nice things. Unless you make sure they won’t fry your electronics.

Dreams (not the Fleetwood Mac song)

I had four dreams last night and remembered them by inventing an acronym for them: CPAP (not to be confused with the device that assists people with sleeping):

  • Cat: In one dream I had a cat, and I was cleaning its food dish and was vaguely upset that the cat might be sick. The cat, a gray short hair, curled up in a giant plastic tub that was apparently its bed (?), but also had water in it. She didn’t seem to mind. This was a mildly upsetting dream. The same dream later featured me at a coffee shop, inexplicably with the cat.
  • Personnel: I was at work, but it was Dream Work, not actual work, and everyone was different or at least I don’t recall them being my normal co-workers. I was in a hallway with a co-worker, as we had apparently been working on something together and a couple of management types were there. A third co-worker was also there. The management types were suggesting that certain improprieties had been committed, and I began thinking over whether I had done anything I shouldn’t have done. I came up with nothing and the co-worker and I walked off, while the third one stayed behind, seemingly about to be punished for some unspoken sin. The impression I got was he had done something like watched porn on the job. This was kind of a dumb dream.
  • Allergies: I looked down at my arm and saw a few silver spots on it. I held the arm up and noticed more silver spots appearing. In the dream I guessed it was an allergic reaction, though silver spots are a dream allergy AFAIK. Then the dream took a turn for the very weird as my arm turned entirely translucent, allowing me to see light through it. I woke up at that point, but my final thought in the dream was something clever, like, “This is weird.”
  • The fourth one I have suddenly drawn a blank on, but it started with P, so it may come back to me. I told Jeff all four dreams, but he doesn’t remember, either. Note to self: Write these things down at the time, other people’s memories may be no better than your own. 😛

Drawing a Day, Day 1: ORANGE

Pretend this was posted on January 1 because I got started late.

Bardot Brush is doing a drawing-a-day thing for the second year in a row, and I’ve decided to take part after learning about it on Broken Forum.

Here are the instructions for joining: Join Making Art Everyday

And the page with the list of prompts (January is food-themed. Mmm, food.): Making Art Everyday

My aim is to keep the drawings simple and quick–this is more about building discipline than improving my art, though I hope that happens, too, of course.

Two more drawings will follow later today to get me on track.

And the first entry of mine, ORANGE. Unless otherwise stated, all drawings are done using the Apple Pencil in Procreate on my iPad Pro.

My orange looks a bit like a bowling ball, but a delicious, healthy bowling ball.

#makingarteveryday

2021, the year of fat

It shouldn’t take much effort to lose weight in January because I tipped the old-e-scale at a hefty 174.2 pounds this morning.

I’m blaming the mid-evening pizza. And chocolate milk. And general lack of activity.

But this year will be different!

In theory.

Also, these are healthy because they’re “low fat”, right? I’m buying a case of them at Costco to help me lose weight this year.

Inevitable “Goodbye and good riddance to 2020 aka The Year of the Plague” post

I never wondered what it would be like to live through a global pandemic and now that I am living in the midst of one, I can say that I was right to never wonder about it. I mean, it could have been worse than it is–here we are less than a year* (!) in and already multiple vaccines are being distributed, promising an eventual return to something that might resemble what we used to consider normal.

With that as a frame of reference, I suppose we can be grateful for the following in terms of how things went.

How the COVID-19 Pandemic Could Have Been Worse: A List

  • The virus could have been much deadlier. Even a fatality rate of 5% would have wreaked havoc across the world (that would equal around 16.5 million dead in the U.S.).
  • Trump could have been President of the entire planet instead of just the United States
  • It could have been even more easily contagious. You think getting people to wear masks was challenging? Imagine if people had to completely isolate to prevent the spread. On second thought, don’t imagine it. You may never sleep again. 😛
  • Transmission by murder hornet (credit to Tick for this one)
  • Vaccine-proof
  • Rewires brain to accept all conspiracy theories
  • Causes a really itchy rash in the worst possible spots

Anyway, it looks like here in BC the vaccine rollout is expected to take until Fall 2021, so roughly 9-10 months. This means that all the measures currently in place will likely remain in place for most of the upcoming year. It sucks, but I’m sure it will build character or something. Here’s to some kind of normalish existence returning before we bring on 2022.

* Never has a year felt so paradoxically long, where days and weeks felt like they stretched on forever, and yet also felt to have gone by in a blur

December 2020 weight loss report: Up 1.9 pounds

Well, poop.

The bad news is I did gain weight both for the month and the year (I jumped 0.8 pounds overnight, which didn’t help).

The good (?) news is that the wright gain was only 1.7 pounds. Stretched over a year, this is pretty close to a rounding error, albeit a big, pudgy one.

The definitely not good news is that I went from 36.1 pounds of body fat to 39. I have been trading my muscle for fat, which would be great if I was a bear and planning to hibernate through the winter.

For 2021, it will not take much effort to improve. When I look back on the year, I can see that I managed to get into a holding pattern, so if I nudge myself a little, and apply some consistency, I may actually see my weight not only drop below 170 pounds again, but possibly keep dropping.

A boy can dream.

As my resolutions post attests, though, I am aiming at a more modest goal of 160 pounds for 2021–I officially have 13.5 pounds to go.

The stats:

December 1: 171.6 pounds
December 31: 173.5 pounds (up 1.9 pounds)

Year to date: From 171.8 to 173.5 pounds (up 1.7 pounds)

And the body fat:

December 1: 22.1% (38 pounds of fat)
December 31: 22.5% (39 pounds of fat) (up 1 pound)