And it’s even using a MacBook, just like me. You go, cat author! And maybe I’ll go, too.
The return of the quiet keyboard
Today I bought my second Logitech K750 solar-powered keyboard. I kind of broke the original version at work when trying to get it working with the USB receiver. But I got a lot of use out of it before my gentle destruction of it, so I’m not perturbed.
But you may be thinking (well, probably not), why would I buy one when I have the CTRL mechanical keyboard with the best keys ever? A good question! These are the features I wanted:
- Wireless. I could easily swap it in and use it as needed.
- Numeric keypad. This is one of those things I occasionally need.
- Quiet. The keys are very quiet, making it the perfect alternative when even I get a little tired of the CLACK of a mechanical keyboard. It happens!
And that’s about it, really. The solar part is a bonus, because it means I never need to buy batteries. It was on sale for $20 off, so I decided to go for it. The only issue right now is the keyboard has a slight curve to it, making it a bit bow-shaped. This means that if I press hard enough on the keys or the board itself, it noticeably flexes, as most of the bottom surface is actually not flush against the desk. This is an issue I did not have with the previous model. It’s not terrible because the keys work with a fairly light touch, but I may still take it back. I’ll mull for now.
And so my vast keyboard collection expands by one more. In a way it’s good that my new PC’s motherboard doesn’t support Bluetooth (a baffling omission, really), as it prevents me from trying out any of the vast number of Bluetooth keyboards out there. Mind you, a $15 USB Bluetooth adapter would fix that…
Book Review: Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography
Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
At one point I was ready to give this a three-star rating, but in the end the sheer enthusiasm of Neil Patrick Harris over the things he loves won me over…to three-and-a-half stars, which I can’t actually assign on Goodreads. But pretend I can.
The section that nearly lost me was one of the fictionalized segments where Harris assumes a super-macho sex stud persona and involves Harold and Kumar. It was kind of gross and while I ain’t no prude, I didn’t find it at all funny, just…gross.
And that’s the worst thing about this autobiography. It deliberately subverts the entire genre by presenting it as a “choose your own adventure,” so the whole book, save for specific sections, is written in the second person, with each chapter giving you options on how to proceed. It took a bit to get used to, but I didn’t really mind it in the end. And if you ignore the choices and just flip the page, you can read the whole book (or at least it didn’t feel like I missed anything).
There are also recipes, magic tricks and testimonials of sorts from others, ranging from Penn Jilette to Sarah Silverman. Some of these are obviously done for comedic effect, others are more sincere. Illustrations and script fragments, self-interviews and more complete the package and while I can’t say it all holds together as well as it should, Harris’s fondness for performing and the adulation he has for those he admires and loves shines through brilliantly. It’s this core, along with witty observations of show business that really make the book worth reading.
And yes, there is a little dirt along the way, as Harris is not shy about pointing out other actors who may not be…quite up to standard. Or drunk. Or both.
The photos at the end, especially from when he was trying to be a super cool “straight” twenty-something, are hilarious and well worth checking out on a tablet or computer where you can see them in glorious full color. Conversely, the photos of him with his husband and kids are cute enough to be used as stock photos of wholesome gay parents.
If you’re looking for an eclectic, sarcastic biography of someone who loves show tunes, this will fill your very specific needs. If you’re hankering for a more conventional biography, you may find this particular take a bit lacking.
View all my reviews
Run 608: Back on track(ish)
Run 608 Average pace: 6:23/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 1:58 pm Distance: 5:03 km Time: 32:06 Weather: Sunny with high cloud Temp: 23-24ºC Humidity: 47% Wind: light BPM: 163 Weight: 166.9 pounds Total distance to date: 4620 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 2, iPhone 8
Today’s run was all about consistency. I headed out to improve on, well, every aspect of last Sunday’s not-so-great run and achieved this. Hooray! Here’s how today’s run was better:
- Faster pace (6:23/km vs. 6:33/km)
- Lower BPM, 163 vs 166
- Did not have to stop and walk at all
- Left foot was not sore
- Had enough energy at the end to actually do a little running on the way home
- Only one cyclist on the trail–and he was walking his bike (!)
And here’s a few small ways the run was a tad worse:
- It was slightly warmer, but drier, and my mouth was so parched I actually thought about how I might want to carry water or gel packs with me during runs this summer
- A tree had collapsed where the Conifer Loop connects to the main trail, forcing me to clamber over branches to keep going
- A parks worker in a putt-putt car nearly mowed me down from behind. Seriously, those things are quiet and they are not driven by kindly old seniors.
In terms of pace, I started out at a slower, steadier pace of 6:16 and fell way back on the second km to 6:42. This is why I don’t check my pace until after a run–seeing that number would have crushed my spirit and tossed it into the lake.
But after that I was the model of consistency and apart from a brief stitch in my lower left side along the Cottonwood Trail, I felt fine, if not quite peppy. Today it felt more like just being out of shape vs. recovering from The Worst Cold Ever, so that was actually a positive. For the last three km, my pace was 6:20, 6:22 and 6:22 again. I found my comfort zone and stuck to it.
Overall, then, a perfectly fine follow-up where I achieved everything I hoped for. After last week’s dismal effort, I was pretty sure I would see an improvement this week, so the results aren’t unsurprising. They are still very welcome.
Photo of the Day, June 1, 2019
Daisy at the Brunette River.
A pile of posts presented promptly
It’s been awhile since I’ve had to jam in a bunch of posts on the last day of the month to equal a one-post-per-day average, but it’s happened this month, because May was my official No Writing month. I just never realized it until I stopped writing.
This is post #31, so I’ve hit my quota for the month with just under two hours to go. Now to go off and think about better, less-meta things to write about.
Be careful what you joke about
Tonight I watched an episode of Mayday, a series I quite like because the detective work in solving airplane accidents fascinates me. This particular show featured a crew on a 727 chatting about not-flying stuff as they were waiting for take-off (a big no-no). One of them joked about crashing.
Then they crashed on take-off.
Be careful what you joke about.
Also, don’t get distracted in the cabin before take-off if you’re part of a flight crew and subsequently forget to change the flaps from the “plane will never get off the ground” position, especially when the take-off alarm system also happens to fail.
Amusing cat image: Metaphor edition
This is an apt metaphor to illustrate my writing efforts in May.
I promise to do better in June, which is a pretty low bar, so I should actually achieve this.
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)
A haiku to May, 2019 edition
It started out cold
Now we get Alberta smoke
But maybe not oil
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.