Row, row, row your boat

It’s a long weekend in the US — Memorial Day weekend. House hunting has begun in earnest, it’s definitely a seller’s market. I have heard a few different reasons for the bump in prices ranging from lack of new builds, the pandemic, and the prevalence of remote working. It’s probably a combination of these. All I know is that house prices are a lot higher than where they were a month ago let alone a year ago and continuing upwards. It will be interesting to come back to this note in a year’s time and see where things have ended up.

On the technology front, I set up Visual Studio Code this week, installed Node.js, hooked up Git and GitHub Desktop, and then used an index.js file to generate smart objects in K2. The workflow is: amend script in VS Code, save file, review changes in GitHub Desktop, commit, and push. Grab the relevant URL from the online repository, refresh the instance, and update the methods. Hey presto. From a troubleshooting perspective I had the opportunity to output errors into the Azure Storage queue with a little plumbing — pretty cool.

Until this week I had been using the same space for both personal and work tasks. Things were getting a little cluttered with multiple laptops, keyboards, and mice. I ordered a $400 34" ultrawide from Costco which arrived midweek and I set about giving these two activities their own space. Breaking things out like this allows you to focus on one or the other without distraction.

Whilst juggling all the above I got around to trying another snack I had only heard about in glowing terms — Chex Mix. I have to say it’s right up there with Cheez-It Grooves (sharp white cheddar flavour). Yes, I’m using chopsticks. Last year a clan member from Dads of Destiny mentioned eating pork scratchings using toast tongs. Grimy fingertips and keyboards don’t mix well, and since I’ve started using chopsticks I haven’t looked back. Note: M&Ms need a little practice!

And finally, the rowing machine! I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I had started exercising. The rowing machine came with a myCloudFitness app that records workouts — I created an Excel table and pulled out the distances and split times. I’ve been doing 10 minute workouts.

10 minutes is not a lot I know, but for the goal of getting going and creating a routine it’s perfect. Once I finish off May I’ll move to 20 minutes. Keeping the time constant also gives a clean chart. I missed 2 days so far which I don’t feel too bad about — I was able to get back to it the following day. My concern is missing a day and then struggling to get back at all.

A few things worth noting: adding music to the routine makes a big difference. Fiddling with earbuds whilst rowing doesn’t work too well — I set up my over-ear Arctis 7 Steel Series headset and fired up my Daft Punk essentials album. A big boost. Settling on the right music matters too — my usual epic orchestral playlist is fine for long distance running but with a 10 minute burst it was lacking. Whether it was a one-off or not, we’ll see.