Week in review 2024-34

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Tempted to rebrand to the Month in Review, or maybe even the Quarter.

Notes on the week

It’s not quite the end of summer, but we’re getting close. It’s been so hot for the past few weeks, to the point where it was actually a relief to cycle across the city in the rain a few nights ago. I was on the way to a cycling workshop, where volunteers meet up once a week to help people with problems they might be having with their bike. I don’t have much to offer in terms of knowledge of bike repair, but I’m eager to build up a bit of experience and it was nice to be able to help a few kids that came by last week with some minor problems. This is all in service of my new found addiction, cycling.

It dawned on me recently that once we leave the Netherlands, I’ll probably never have access to such incredible cycle infrastructure again in my life, so why not take advantage of it? I took my first test ride of an ultra-lightweight racing bike last week, and I’m hooked. The experience is so unlike my city bike that it’s actually offensive to consider them as the same mode of transport. The weight of the racing bike is the first thing you notice, it’s actually disconcerting to the point where I caught myself continuously picking ip up at just marvelling at how little effort was needed to lift it off the ground. The second, and more visceral thing is the riding position. On a city bike you’re upright, with your back more or less straight and turning your arms gently to suggest which way the bike should go. On the road bike you lean forward, hands on the drop bars attacking the road. The weight of the bike, the riding position and the tight width of the handlebars make the whole thing feel more “connected”, you demand the bike to turn and it duly obliges, you push more power through your legs and the bike responds with more and more speed.

Sufficed to say, I’m a convert, and have spent the last few nights browsing Marktplats.nl trying to find my own road bike. Cycling is one of those hobbies where no matter how much money you have to spend, someone is selling something that feels just out of your reach, and after a couple of conversations with people that have been cycling for a long time, the best move is to buy an old road bike in decent nick, fix up any little bits that need attention and just get riding. The Canyons and Specialized carbon frames will always be there in the future, but the most important thing is to get out on the road. Just this morning I had actually hoped to go for a test ride on a bike I found during the week, but the owner just messaged to let me know that someone had gotten in before me! The hunt continues.


Since my last update here, we’ve had a great trip to Finland where we spent some time in Helsinki before travelling north to see Elle’s sister play at a folk music festival in Kaustinen. It was an amazing trip from start to finish, but the most incredible thing was witnessing perpetual daylight once we got up north. It just never got fully dark, and even though these aren’t the most ideal conditions for sleeping in tents, I was really glad we were camping because there were no walls or curtains to obstruct the feeling of constant daytime. One night we got back to our tent around 2am, at the ‘darkest’ part of the night, and we could see clearly all around us. The sun actually set below the horizon for what felt like around 20 minutes, before the first glimpses of it emerging again began. I can’t even imagine what it must be like in winter, when this process is reversed and the folks up there live in almost constant darkness.

We then travelled home for some work stuff, and got to spend some time catching up with friends and family. Then roughly 24 hours after we travelled back to the Netherlands my family were over to visit. This was their first time seeing the new apartment and it felt really good to have them, especially considering how much more “our space” the new place feels. We were basically housesitting the last apartment, waiting for the owner to return, whereas we’re really able to put a stamp of this flat. The next week a few of our friends came to visit and just last week one of Elle’s sisters came to stay for a few days as well! It’s been a busy few weeks, I think it might be clear why updating this blog has been low on the priority list.

The moral bankruptcy of Andreessen Horowitz: www.theverge.com/2024/7/24…

What happens if you connect Windows XP to the internet today? : www.youtube.com/watch

Tritone substitutions are musical magic: johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2024/07/2…

Releasing a pro video app in four months: www.lux.camera/kino-a-pr…

Is Oral History more durable than written history?: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/…

Logos on prosthetics are like tattoos you never asked for: kottke.org/24/08/004…

A Tetris clone for the PlayStation 1: github.com/jbreckmck…

Getting started with Capture the Flags: www.youtube.com/watch

Reading

Last time I wrote, I had just finished Scott Lynch’s “The Lies of Locke Lamora”. I’ve since gone on to finish the series, or at least as much of the series that exists today. I discovered not long after finishing the first book that the author had planned for this to be a six part series, but the most recent book to be released was book 3, and that was ten years ago! It made the read through of book 3 a bit tough, knowing that it would likely leave me wanting more, without any sign that the author would ever get around to finishing the series. I couldn’t believe it, just days after finishing the book, that Lynch announced that he had finished work on three novellas to bridge the gap between books 3 and 4, and is expecting them to release soon! I feel bad for those that have been waiting ten years for new material, but I’m really happy that I (hopefully) won’t have to wait much longer.

Listening

It’s getting to that time of the election cycle, where no matter how much I convince myself that I want to tune out and just let it happen, I find myself hooked to every news source, poll and opinion that I can find. “The Rest is Politics” is addressing my political podcast needs, and manages a decent spread of focus across US, EU and world topics.

Rónán Ó Snodaigh, of Kíla fame, has a massive back catalogue of solo work, but I had missed this album he made with Myles O’Reilly back in the pandemic days. It’s a great listen, but track 3, “Tá’n t’Áth Liom” really, really stands out.