Technically, spring doesn’t start for another 20 days, but look at these photos and note that it is currently 15C as I type this. For the moment, at least, it’s already here.
Spring 2025 has sort of arrived!
iCloud, you cloud, some of us just wait for cloud
I rarely open the iCloud program on my Windows PC, but when I have recently, this is what I see:
The circle of coloured dots slowly spins mesmerizingly as it teases that it’s “Signing in…” but it never signs in. Until I go to icloud.com in my browser, relaunch the program, and then it works. I don’t know if this is a coincidence, but it has “fixed” the issue each time.
More quality work from the company devoted to squeezing as much as it can from its customers, because tens of billions in pure profit is not enough. I know I promised not to gripe about Apple as much on this blog anymore, but they make it so easy now.
But I do promise to not gripe as much going forward. For reals. If for no other reason than I use Apple devices increasingly less these days.
Fenced in
UPDATE, March 3, 2025: I got a photo of the sign. It is intriguing, but not particularly illuminating:
When I was on my run at Burnaby Lake, I saw this partial enclosure near the 5K marker, which was not there the last time I passed through.
A few things as observation:
- I didn’t notice the red sign until after, which may very well reveal its purpose.
- It’s cute that the gate is padlocked, since the entire back is open.
- I like to think it’s ultimately intended to be a jail for misbehaving geese.
- I will take a photo of the sign and report any further changes after my next run.
February 2025 weight loss report: Up 3.4 pounds
Also known as The Pop Tart Month.
February was the month I spent recovering from battling a kidney infection for much of December and January and I clearly sought solace in food, specifically:
- Frosted Strawberry Pop Tarts
- Cookies, cookies, cookies
- Potato chips
- Crackers
- Cheese
- Crackers with cheese
- Anything with cheese
- Basically, if it was edible and tasty, I ate it
This resulted in a rapid gaining of weight, which I could not shed. I course-corrected near the end of the month, steering my metaphorical ship about from the fatberg, but it was too late to make a difference. It didn’t help that I also jumped up another 0.5 pounds on the final day of the month (today). I started the month at 167.3 pounds, which should have been an easy target to beat, and instead ended at 170.7 pounds. Sigh.
Despite this setback, I do think I will begin losing weight again. I am back to running and my health seems at least OK for the moment. Also, my muscle mass increased by 0.4 kg (0.88 pounds), so it wasn’t ALL fat. Just mostly fat.
Stats:
January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds
Current: 170.7 pounds
Year to date: Up 3.9 pounds
February 1: 167.3 pounds
February 28: 170.7 pounds (up 3.4 pounds)
Body fat:
February 1: 25.8%
February 28: 26.3% (up 0.5%)
Skeletal muscle mass:
February 1: 29.8 kg
February 28: 30.2 kg (up 0.4 kg)
BMI:
February 1: 23.9
February 28: 24.4 (up 0.5)
Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds
Mini-culling: Logitech newsletters
This is a minor culling and I can’t prove that Logitech is acting maliciously, but the effect amounts to the same.
A while back I subscribed (via my Gmail account) to a Logitech newsletter because I realized I buy a lot of Logitech mice (and keyboards, to a lesser extent). For some reason, these messages aren’t getting forwarded to my current email, despite Google not marking them as spam. Odd.
But I then decided I don’t really want to get these anymore, anyway, so I hit the ol’ Unsubscribe link at the bottom of the most recent newsletter.
It took me here:
Yes, “unsubscription error.” Whoopsie, we didn’t unsubscribe you, our bad! Try again or go through our customer support hell, and good luck with that lol!
I tried a few more times, the error persisted. I then did the following in Gmail:
Problem solved (for me)!
(My current mouse is still Logitech but my keyboards are from Keychron and Drop.)
Firefox, why you gotta do this?
UPDATE, March 3, 2025: This is not encouraging:
I’ve changed email a hundred times in the past few years. I don’t want to change browsers, too.
The interweb denizens are still sussing out Mozilla’s new Terms of Use (as in, they never had these before) for Firefox, but this seems…not good? Bold is provided by me, as are the gratuitous icons of spies.
You Give Mozilla Certain Rights and Permissions
You give Mozilla all rights necessary to operate Firefox, including processing data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice, as well as acting on your behalf to help you navigate the internet. When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox.
The language is just vague enough to put everyone on edge. We’ll see if Mozilla clarifies exactly what they mean by “help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox”. Maybe it’s all innocent-like. Maybe.
Font (no longer huge) Awesome
There was a recent update to the Official™ Font Awesome plugin, and I was excited, because I like icons and glyphs and other weird non-verbal forms of communication. However, when I tried inserting Font Awesome icon of a cat (of course), I discovered it was very big. Like, taking up half the screen of a 27″ monitor big.
I noticed you could adjust the size, so I adjusted the size way down. This seemed to have no effect.
I was sad.
But today there was an update and I think it’s been fixed. I’ll test this below by clogging up the rest of this post with Font Awesome icons! Or maybe just one. Or two.
This is the cat I originally tried posting:
And now, the yin-yang symbol. It spins! I think.
Here is a larger version of the cat, now in orange:
Exciting times here on the ol’ blog. Carry on with your day, if you can!
Run 908: Rickety bridges, litterbugs and me
I finarly did it.
For the first time since December 2, 2024 (!) I ran a full 5 km.
I did it by starting at a deliberately slow pace, where my first km was a sloth-like 6:10/km (I am confident I would have been under 6:00 if I’d run at my regular pace). I felt this was vital to having enough gas to finish the run and I think I was right, as my pace fell off for every kim, until the last, where I managed to go fast enough to…match my 4K speed.
The overall pace of 6:21/km will improve in time, but the important thing is I know I can do it.
It also helped that it was super mild, with it rising to 14C by the end of the run, literally twice the usual high temperature for the day. I wore one layer, and it was my long-sleeved short. For the run, a regular tee would have been fine, but the wind picked up a little on the way back and the long sleeves came in handy then.
Likely due to the very mild temperature and no real chance of rain, the trail was moderately busy and I passed multiple other joggers, dog walkers and such. There were no issues anywhere along the router and the trail was in good shape, though I could see signs of recently felled trees in several locations.
As for the littering: a Pepsi paper cup left on the trail near the Jiffy John™. This irked me, because this is right near the parking lot, which has a garbage can. It annoyed me enough that I picked up the cup and disposed of it. To do so, I had to first move an empty pop can from the lid of the garbage can. Seriously, how can you bring a can to the garbage and not put it in? Could the person not prefer the bear-proof handle? Maybe it was a bear carrying the can.
The rickety bridge: The bridge over Deer Lake Brook has been in bad shape since I started running here in 2011. It has not improved with age. Although a few planks and one set of stairs have recently been replaced, the bridge as a whole feels exactly the way it looks when you jog across it. You start thinking things like, “How could is the water underneath it?” The good news is it’s getting replaced, per this sign:
The bad news is the first boardwalk on the same trail has had signs saying “plans for repairs are underway” for more than two years now. Maybe three, actually.
I didn’t experience any issues during the run, likely thanks to my slovenly pace, but as I sit here typing these words, I’m at 30,000+ steps and my legs are starting to feel a wee bit stiff. I suspect tomorrow will be a Rest Day.
Still, it was great to finally get back out and do a “real” run again.
Stats:
Run 908
Average pace: 6:21/km
Training status: Overreaching
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 1:12 p.m.
Distance: 5:02 km
Time: 31:55
Weather: Cloudy, intermittent sun
Temp: 13-14°C
Humidity: 62%
Wind: light
BPM: 152
Weight: 171.4
Total distance to date: 6,395.0 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Switchback (these are old shoes and will be replaced soon™)
It is time for a cat
A funny cat.
Treadmill workout: The watch said no
But I said yes!
Because I was short on steps again.
More specifically, my Forerunner declared today a rest day, but I defied it and did a treadmill workout, though at an overall slower pace, going from a speed of 6.5 for the first half+, then a mix between 5 and 6 for the rest. At the end of the workout, the watch declared I was Overreaching, which it hasn’t claimed in quite a long time. So that’s something!
Curiously, both the BPM and calorie burn were higher than the previous and presumably harder workout.
Stats:
Speed: 5.0-6.5 (6.5)
Incline: 1 (1)
Pace: 9:12/km (8:47/km)
Time: 27:42 (26:32)
Distance: 3.02 km (3.02 km)
Calories burned: 269 (243)
BPM: 128 (121)
Parenthetical numbers are from the previous treadmill workout.
Be an eagle, not a turkey
This was today’s advice from Arnold Schwarzenegger1 I almost spelled the name right on the first try.
It’s not bad advice. Turkeys are fine, but they can’t fly. Eagles can fly, look cool, and one tried attacking Donald Trump1.
I think I’m more a turkey-eagle hybrid, though. A turkgle. I can fly like an eagle, provided I’m in a plane, hot air balloon or the clutches of a California condor, but I’m generally ground-based like a turkey. Also, like a turkey, we have a similar amount of hair on the head. I think I wear my lack of hair better. No offence to any turkeys reading this.
You can read Arnie’s advice (in his accent for best effect) in his Pump Club newsletter.
- Just mentioning the name doesn’t make this a political post, technically. ↩︎
Treadmill workout: It’s not exciting
I can’t really come up with a way to jazz up treadmill workout posts. This blog is already top-heavy with cat pics.
So, let’s just say I was coming up short on steps today, so to the treadmill I went.
Stats:
Speed: 6.5 (6.5-9.0)
Incline: 1 (1)
Pace: 8:47 (8:36/km)
Time: 26:32 (30:00)
Distance: 3.02 km (3.46 km)
Calories burned: 243 (262)
BPM: 121 (130)
Parenthetical numbers are from the previous treadmill workout.