📺 The Boys (Season 2) - ★★★☆☆
Not quite as good as season 1, though still entertaining and outrageous
I was feeling a bit worn out. So, skipped this morning’s swim and slept in. This did wonders for my Readiness To Train score, which hadn’t been green for a week. A reminder, which should be unecessary, of the importance of rest.
🍿 Turning Red (2022) - ★★★☆☆
Finished reading: Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky. A fun read. I really liked the structure of alternating each chapter between fantasy and sci-fi, plus the story was intriguing 📚
Finished reading: Perhaps the Stars by Ada Palmer. A satisfying ending to the Terra Ignota series. I really enjoyed this series, though it can be a tough read. Jammed full of ideas and rich details, which can seem overwhelming at times. In the end, I’m not sure it was a successful novel, despite the ambition and fascinating world building📚
🎧 The Essential Sam Harris is a well done, comprehensive set of podcast episodes that dive into the details of specific topics, including artificial intelligence, consciousness, and morality. I’ve enjoyed each one, so far
🎧 Interstellar jazz from Hyper Dimensional Expansion Beam will wake you up
📺 Slow Horses seasons 1 and 2 are both great. I enjoyed the sarcastic competence of the rejects at Slough House
Started 2023 with a polar bear swim 🥶. 0°C air temperature and 2°C in the water. Now we’re huddled by the fire to warm up 🔥
My 2022 focussed on fitness. Strava helpfully summarizes this as over 4,000 km travelled with 1,600 🏃♂️, 2,500 🚴♂️, and 100 🏊♂️. Plus 🏋️♂️ and essential 🧘♂️ sessions. I’ll build on this in 2023 while striving for balance
🏃♂️ Nice run along the river. I’m glad it has warmed up a bit
🎶 I listened to a lot of Nils Frahm this year. Slightly biased, perhaps, by his most recent album being over three hours long
Precarious
Great additions to my reading list. Family knows me well 📚
Reading more books in 2022 📚
I read many more books this year than in recent, past years. Although this was intentional, I’m glad it worked out. I really cut back on my various internet feeds, so that I was less distracted away from books. Purchasing a Kobo and connecting it to the local public library was also helpful.
The most influential non-fiction book for me this year was Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. Plenty of practical and insightful advice in this book.
Picking a favourite fiction book is always fraught. This year, I think it was A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers. Something about the emotional core of this book really resonated with me.
Here’s the full list of books from the year:
Finished reading: Network Effect by Martha Wells. Murderbot is great! I’ll happily keep reading any books in this series 📚
Waiting for the train
Finished reading: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. This series has been really entertaining so far📚
Computation with marbles 🧮🧐
I’ve been interested for a while now in better understanding the underlying mechanics of computers. I’ve also been keen to do something other than stare at a screen. Turing Tumble is a fun solution to both of these goals.
Turing Tumble is an educational game in which you build a mechanical computer that is powered by marbles. The game comes with a comic book that guides you through ever more complex computing principles, adding more sophisticated parts as you progress. Each principle is presented as a challenge in which you’re given a goal and a few starting pieces. You then have to integrate some earlier principles into the new goal to come up with a solution. The challenges get pretty tough! But, I’m enjoying figuring out each puzzle while making progress through the story.
Just as an example, here’s Challenge 26 in which the goal is to release 4 blue marbles, 1 red, and then another 4 blue. The blue, arrow-shaped pieces are bits that allow you to count, while the black piece near the top right corner is an interceptor for stopping computation (warning, spoilers ahead!).
Although the primary audience for this is kids, I’m finding it both fun and educational!
Spotted on today’s run
