jack

As with the last half a dozen Decembers I'm writing a story for yuletide fanfiction exchange. I got something I really quite like, with a little iteration on the original ideas the original author's characters started springing to life. I've got a story of about 4000 words, but then I got distracted and still need to go back and punch it up throughout to make everything fit well and make sure the characters HAVE all the awesome moments I wanted. And make sure that I actually have enough of the characters it's supposed to be about.

I have also very much enjoyed going to friends' writing evenings.

I ran 10 miles! Home to Bottisham lock along the river.

That's by far the furthest I've tried to run. It went pretty well. I could have been more consistent, but I kept a reasonable for me running pace. I was completely completely tired out after which I guess makes sense. I was almost staggering a mile home :)

It felt really good. Stretching myself often does!

That makes me think a half marathon wouldn't be that much further, although I don't know how slow the cut offs are for organised races.

Why go for medication rather than coaching/therapy to start with? What about feeling squeamish about taking things that might alter your personality?

That's an excellent question, and it is one that is very personal for a lot of people including me, but I'm basically happy to talk about this stuff forever 🙂

Medication mostly fixes hardware problems and counseling mostly fixes software problems. Hardware fixes can help with software problems, eg if someone is depressed for a year initially for a reason and antidepressant gets them back to normal. But software fixes usually can't fix hardware problems. Sometimes they can work around the problem. Sometimes you can grow some brain to compensate for the missing bit. But often you can't, or only can a little bit.

I have the same feeling as you, not wanting an augmentation. But it doesn't feel like that (or look like that to careful consideration). It doesn't feel like it's giving me extra oomph to compensate for not enough oomph. It feels like, I'm doing all the right things that OUGHT to make me able to do things, but the connector is missing, and when I get that fixed physically, then doing those things NOW has an effect.

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Another mini-adventure, I swam along Wicken Lode! I cycled to Wicken Fen, swam to Upware for pub lunch, and swam back along Burwell Lode!

3mi swimming, plus 22mi cycling. That's by far the furthest I've swum, the only time I did more than 1mi before was the Slow Swim and Picnic. It was tiring by the end but felt very good. Very achy this morning!
When I swam along Grantchester Meadows in sunny weather people thought I was bold and interesting, but this time I met a boat tour who said, they'd never seen anything like it before, and I think I crossed over into being weird...

The swimming was mixed. It's never as glorious when it's not sunny, but the water was as nice as always in summer. Travelling down a narrow channel in the reads feels magical, like your own private trail. And you know that the footpath is just over the reeds if you need it. And the weeds never tangle. But there is a lot of mud and weeds/reeds below the water, and some stretches nothing much to see but endless reeds.

Photos on facebook or instagram: https://www.facebook.com/jack.vickeridge/posts/pfbid02nGcRCxShNyy28ikJ6cnjwKS8rcfVjcbkHUm4ZkqJwfEdScW6x49FT9VWWwmRDVBel

RUNNING

There's been more than a month when I've been running regularly and haven't run into knee problems (EXCITE! But also fingers very very crossed!) That's done about 4x 5k, but I have been running every week so I am going to count that towards the "run 5k every week" badge.

And I should get the most significant part of that if I just keep going.

It does also require signing up to a race. I think I can just run 10k cold now, so I probably should try that, and I may count that, but also aim to run an official race at some point.

I might be able to do a half marathon, but I want to do more "find a level I can sustain forever" rather than "work towards a particular event".

WILD SWIMMING

I have been swimming outside since may, roughly once a week. Quite a few in the lido, although the last few weeks all outside. If I do 3 months averaging once a week I will count that (as long as I don't cheekily skip the cold weeks).

This is so much easier when the summers are regularly over 20 degrees...

I do also have to do the other parts of the badge, buying and caring for a wetsuit etc. I feel like I've fulfilled a lot of the spirit of the badge by swimming outside regularly *without* a wetsuit, but I think it's fair to prepare for being able to swim out in autumn not only summer (or some other similar challenge).

I did 1.5mi swim in the Slow Swim and Picnic. I'd like to do a longer distance when I have a day free, even try 3mi, although need to find a stretch that long to swim.

BAKING

I've done a variety of the things. Some I already know but want to do since I started the badge. A few I need to try.

Rachel had been very satisfied with my making efforts :)

And Eclairs and Millefeuille are actually difficult and I will need to learn.

ALT-COOKING

I have been experimenting with cooking more things. I made up my own target of a certain number of different recipes and improvisations and variations. I need to actually try making some things to a recipe because I haven't done as many of that.

DIARY-ING

I am still keeping up my regular personal diary, I will automatically reach the duration target at some point.

I made some efforts to write more to the point, including specifics which might be meaningful later and leaving out things that I wanted to get off my chest but would be too vague to mean anything when read. I'm not sure if I have a target there other than keeping trying.

I made similar efforts to post more to the point on facebook and dreamwidth.

There's a few other similar badges like daily habits and daily gratitude I've tried to build up a habit for but haven't quite got there. I've got some habits but none quite every day.

EXPLORER

I can't remember what this needed. I've done plenty and plenty of walking! But I also need one decent challenge.

I cycled to St Ives and swam across the Ouse!

It was actually a useful part of the walk, as I started where the busway crosses the river, then walked through St Ives, and through The Thicket paths. Then there's no bridge yet before Houghton, but I found a place that was easy to get into the water from both sides (almost opposite but not quite).

Changed under big magically thin towel. Everything into dry bag and plunge in. The water was incredibly lovely, I didn't want to get out.

Then walk back through the meadows on the South side of the Ouse, just outside St Ives.

I also stopped at a lovely Terrace restaurant right over the river, and stopped in the Norris museum which was really nice and sold me some small pretty notebooks.

"Sherlock, but Make Him Likable and Also a not-quite-fallen Angel" I stole that from a review on Tor.

The book does an AMAZING job at showing the relationship between Doyle (based on Watson) and Crow. From Watson's point of view, it is at least as much about him, even though insightful but at right-angles to humanity Crow is the most distinctive character.

It does a great job remixing the original setting to a world where angels (of buildings), werewolf communities, seances, rogue demons in the Afghanistan war etc are a normal part of life. The remixed mysteries are all familiar, but MAKE SENSE with the rules of the world.

It also does a good job of showing different sorts of people (different nationalities, different ethnicities, different genders, different cistransness) who existed in society without replicating Victorian prejudices, but mostly successfully expressed through non-anachronistic viewpoints.

The only other thing I wanted was more of it: not character, more setting. The framing story about Jack the Ripper is a good hook but isn't as interesting as the individual episodes, and I was impatient for More.

1) What are you wearing right now?

Answering for yesterday, black T-shirt with small astronaut carrying a string of planets floating like balloons down the side, which was new yesterday. See: https://img.ltwebstatic.com/images3_pi/2022/06/28/1656392751d37bde3e5d9b53fafacb1a3d20c344c3.webp

I made an effort to branch out from "plain black tshirts" and "black tshirts with slogans on" to find something that would fill the same niche of being convenient and suitable for most of my day to day without a lot of thought, but also look "well put together" in a way I find hard to describe. So T-shirts with more artistic but less sprawling designs were my thought, including some with more "decoration" than "logo".

Also jogging bottoms which are my go-to for sitting around the house.

2) What would you rather be wearing right now?

That was exactly what I wanted!

In general, it would be nice to wear nicer looking clothes without needing too much effort in it. I suppose that's always a trade-off.

3) What is your favorite outfit of clothing that you currently own and wear?

I'm not sure. The black t-shirt with the colourful dice (present from Mx 13) is one that always makes me happy.

I really like wearing a suit occasionally, but haven't actually done for a while, I'm not sure I have one that fits any more.

I really liked the fedora hat. It suited so many different situations. But eventually I lost it, and fedoras got a reputation as beloved of creepy internet guys so I shied away from getting another the same.

4) What is your favorite outfit of clothing that you have ever worn?

The most lovely is my wedding suit. It was an AMAZING garment: blue frock coat, blue brocade waistcoat with black and gold lining. Unfortunately, I was very busy with organising wedding and didn't quite know what I wanted, so although the overall outfit is amazing, it wasn't easy to wear in other situations, and my weight has gone down and up several times since then, so I've not found occasions to wear it as I'd hoped. Possibly I could get it adapted now, since I would still really like to.

5) What was the last new or new-to-you garment you bought or acquired?

That T-shirt, plus several others.

Also some shoelaces I sought something black but with a purple highlight, and found something similar but not quite, so I think I'll end up with black laces on my day to day black shoes, but coloured laces on my trainers. And a couple of "pull tight" toggles of different designs, I want to see if it's more convenient than tying.

I went open water swimming! It was incredibly nice.

I cycled down to Grantchester meadows again, in swimming trunks and t-shirt I could whip off, and walked along to one of the new slips. I just walked right in, the water is so warm I barely needed any acclimitisation at all, it was so nice in the water I found it hard to leave.

I was bold and tried swimming from that slip up to the top of the meadows where Grantchester starts, and walked back, and it went sufficiently well that I then swam down to the *other* slip and walked back from that as well.

I wasn't sure about swimming along: most of the way it wouldn't be easy to get out, so even though it wasn't far, I was committed. And the bottom of the river is inconsistent: some places it's easy to stand up, some places it's deep mud, some places it's deep, and some places it's rather overgrown with ominously grasping plants with big leaves. But I knew that I could swim a fair distance in a managed pool, and in fact it was totally fine. Even a couple of field lengths felt a long way when you didn't quite know what to expect, but it was really satisfying.

It was about 500m between the two swims, which was short compared to what I normally do, but doing it all continuously was harder work too.

It turns out, when you're swimming outside, that breaks the magical barrier of talking to strangers, and also makes you look like like a really interesting person! A few people spoke to me, including four who'd brought a little table, table cloth, and little teaparty.

And I got talking to two: One, an engine driver who was out with his canoe (not on strike, on holiday), who attracted a set of ducks onto his canoe. One a retail worker from Duxford who'd come to swim and sunbathe in Grantchester for the day and helped me re-sunscreen after swimming.

I felt incredibly refreshed for a couple of hours not needing to do a lot of things.

I remembered the temporary ban on swimming, and I'm really glad there seems to have been some sort of compromise which makes it actually easier.

And I also keep meaning to tempt other people to come swim with me, but it's almost always something I do at short notice so it's hard to arrange.

https://thefridayfive.dreamwidth.org/110472.html

1. What kind of bugs do you see outside this time of year?

I really don't pay enough attention to recognise what comes out when. But I have enjoyed seeing more butterflies around generally, either because of more meadows nearby, or me paying more attention, or a recovery in populations. It's lovely to see them flitting around the garden. And others too, but I can't remember what.

2. What's your favorite food to eat outside?

Anything, in a way -- I quite like eating at an outside table even when conditions are perfect.

But specific outside food, I guess that mostly means picnic food: nice, fresh, sandwiches, nice crisps, veg, maybe dips, cold refreshing drinks. Especially after a trek. Or BBQ. Or spontaneous ice-cream.

3. How much rain is too much rain?

A light rain, I'll happily just accept, since I started carrying a baseball cap, and not wearing clothes pristine enough for it to make a difference. A torrential (for england) downpour is nice if you can watch from safety. It's not as much, how heavy, as when it goes on for too long

4. What are you celebrating this month?

My belated birthday celebration. Maybe making progress on healthcare admin. Getting some plans into place at work. Regular outside swimming. Improved productivity techniques. I need to do some more FUN things though.