Ora et Labora

Today: Big blizzard flying through the northeast has tied up a bunch of travel plans and left us (blessedly) with an extra houseguest for two days as mom cannot get back to New England with the weather.

Status: Tired, slept at the hotel last night in Stillwater and none of the doors had soft closing mechanisms, so naturally every let the door slam at all hours of the night. But I did get up this morning and go to the gym for the first time in months, I do kind of miss it.

Last Watched: Oklahoma State-Iowa wrestling dual. A full arena of 12,000+ fans for a wrestling dual is not something you see many places.

Today: Obsidian daily notes were showing me notes from last month on any days this month that had a corresponding note from January. The problem seems to be that even though the plugin is a default plugin and offers the option of sorting notes by YYYY/MM/DD it doesn’t actually work. So now all the notes are filed by YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD which is fare less elegant and means I need to go back and edit all my previous paths to make them show up again, but it does now work.

Status: Woke up on Wednesday and the foot hurt and it still hurts. The joys of getting old, luckily it doesn’t impede walking all that much.

Reading: Student exams mostly

Listening: For years I paid for MLB.tv because they had old rates on their Apple subscription page and I found it lovely I was getting a bargain and paying $30 less a year for the service. This year I finally decided it wasn’t worth it, I simply wasn’t watching enough games to justify it. But I still want to listen to games sometimes so I went to subscribe to the radio package MLB offered for $20. Frustratingly, they got rid of it at some point in the past, replacing it with a new MLB+ package that bundles the radio broadcasts with access to MLB Network for triple the price. Sigh.

Last Watched: Battle of the Bastards from Game of Thrones, a truly delightful ending.

I bought a lovely wood wrist rest so I can, after years of owning it, finally use my mechanical keyboard with some comfort. The problem remains that my desk at the office really doesn’t have the space for both a keyboard and monitor and have it be comfortable.

Today: It’s Ash Wednesday. I’m not getting ashes but there’s still something soothing in the idea of “For dust you are and to dust you shall return.” More on that idea

Status: I’m not one to care too much about the lawn but ours has some barren patches and some big divots that present problems when mowing. As we move back into the Spring and Summer seasons, I’ve been looking into simple ways to improve the lawn while not going full-on make it look like a golf course and spend the equivalent of a part-time job on it each week mode. Epsom salt seems like a benefit and cheap, while Native American Seed would be an effective way to not destroy the environment with pointless seeds that need too much water.

Reading: Honestly, nothing.

Listening: Had to break out a paid of wired airpods today because the wireless headphones were acting up. And kind of feel like I should just go back to the wired all the time. There’s no connection issues and they store easier.

Last Watched: Half way through season six of Game of Thrones and there really are times where I wonder how people tolerated this show’s just abysmal sex and gender ideas. I’m going to finish it because I do have a long term goal of getting through all the HBO prestige shows I never watched.

Today: The daily notes in Obsidian are showing last month’s notes and I have no idea how to resolve that alas.

Status: College baseball is back and spring training is coming back around in Florida and Arizona. Don’t get me wrong, I deeply love any number of sports, but baseball with it’s unwritten rules and innings that could in theory go on until the teams simply fall over dead is the ideal sport for me. Let me sit in the bleachers and watch 2-3 hours of baseball and I’ll be rejuvenated like nothing else.

Reading: Do I give up on Martyr! or no, that is the question.

Listening: Did not realize I had “hear Mandy Patinkin sing Harry Chapin and say fuck a few times” on my wishlist, but that was before I saw Mandy on Saturday put on a lovely show. I was not one of the people allegedly upset by the swearing for the record.

Last Watched: Game of Thrones, where some of the plot points are increasingly becoming so easy to figure out it’s making it a less appealing show.

Bacone Indian College, photograph, Date Unknown Oklahoma Historical Society

Today: First exam of the semester.

Status: Less than ideal sleep last night, 64/100 according to Apple with over an hour awake. Left earlier than usual this morning and forgot the energy drink, which honestly is probably for the best. I don’t drink more than three a week, but they still kind of scare me.

Reading: Itching closer to ending Martyr! and returning it unfinished.

Listening: I always forget how much I love the Broadcasts app. A simple app for collecting internet radio streams that makes me think every time I open it and start a random stream that I should just cancel Apple Music. I never do, but it makes me think it.

Last Watched: Game of Thrones, nearly done with season 5. The two episodes last night really encapsulated my conflicting feelings about the show. The first has an entirely unnecessary and obnoxious scene that seemed to be put it just because it could be and made me want to quit the show. The second had a deeply hilarious ending that really made me want to keep going.