happy birthday, blog
It's been a year since I first posted on this blog. This will be the 67th post, which is a bit more than one a week.
I'm still not really sure what I want this to be. Writing posts takes a fair amount more effort than I thought, and I find myself often wanting to write something cohesive rather than just some random thoughts. When I'm busy and I have things that I've done that I want to write about, I feel I don't have interest or time to do so.
Maybe I need to care less about what I post. I did that a bit more over the summer and enjoyed that. Maybe that will be the focus of the blog's second year!
tags:
meta,
self
permalink | posted by nathan on Friday, the 21th of January, 2022, when he should have been sleeping
two more christies
Just after Christmas I was feeling a bit sad - I was hearing my friends all make plans back home, and felt a bit homesick over Christmas. So I went for a walk and bought myself some of books to cheer myself up. One was new, but the others came from a second hand bookstore that I am definitely going to return to.
The two I've got round to reading have both been Agatha Christies (it's about time I read some more to keep up my 50% Christie rate). The first was At Bertram's Hotel, a Miss Marple book. It was okay; I think I enjoy Miss Marple for the small village, countryside setting, as well as Miss Marple's shrewd and understated comments. Sadly, both were mostly missing from this book, and the mystery felt a bit forced.
The second was Dead Man's Folly, which was a Poirot. I thought the setup was very well done - a murder mystery hunt at an old English Manor, with a wide array of potential suspects, and a possible solution to the murder that would mirror the solution to the mystery hunt? Again, sadly, it didn't quite land: the solution felt a little rushed and like it came out of the blue. It was a little far-fetched as well, which was unfortunate.
Still, two more down!
tags:
books,
christie
permalink | posted by nathan on Saturday, the 15th of January, 2022, whilst sipping tea in the morning
i didn't run every day in january
It was a little goal Beth and I had set ourselves to get us into marathon training properly, and also just to see if we could.
Sadly, I've been ill the last couple of days and thought it prudent to recover properly before starting training again.
I think that's okay though. 29/31 days isn't awful - bring on the rest of January!
tags:
running,
life
permalink | posted by nathan on Saturday, the 15th of January, 2022, whilst sipping tea in the morning
the french dispatch
We saw this film last year, sometime in December. I think I had a bit too much going on to consider writing a blog post about it, but it was definitely one of the best films I've seen all year.
I am a big fan of Wes Anderson. I like the style, I like the humour, I like the whimsical stories that are often deeper than they seem. I like how it eschews reality, but not completely.
The French Dispatch was all that and more. It felt like a relentless onslaught of ideas and story and colours and fun. It threw jokes and left turns and plot points at you and didn't care if you kept up. And I just really, really like the aesthetic of it all.
tags:
movies
permalink | posted by nathan on Saturday, the 8th of January, 2022, when he should have been sleeping
a new year
I'm a bit late, but it's 2022!
The new year started without much fanfare (okay, there were a few fireworks). Beth and I did spend the first hour of the new year writing down things we wanted to do in Canada this year though, which was nice.
We also decided we were going to run every day in January. The first week has gone well - my legs are a bit achy, but nothing too bad. We've had to do (or, chosen to do) some runs on a treadmill as it's been quite snowy/slushy/rainy here. The month of running is not just for general running fitness, but also because we've signed up for Vancouver Marathon, which is in ~18 weeks - so it's the start of marathon training! We have a training plan that feels reasonable, and running every day is helping us stick to it. Hopefully we can keep it up!
Another change this year is that I've started Bullet Journaling. I'm using it to keep my to-do list up to date, jot down some thoughts/feelings/memories throughout the day, and also as a way to track my habits. It appears to be helpful - so far I've managed a week of running and stretching every day, as well as doing some French on Duolingo, and reading more. I'm hoping it will continue to be helpful.
We're also looking for a new apartment, and I'm looking for a new job. The apartment search has been okay - we've seen 6(?) now, and all of them have been okay but not great. We're holding out for a great one, which will hopefully come soon. The job search has been more fruitful - I made a post on LinkedIn (that apparently 2000+ people have seen!) and have found a lot of interesting companies and entry points through that. It's a nice feeling to know people are happy to recommend you to others. Still, a lot of the jobs I've applied for seem like they can't/won't sponsor a work permit, which is a bit frustrating. Some avenues are definitely still open though.
I'm finding myself a lot more relaxed and not feeling like I need to cram things into my evenings recently as well. It might be because I'm not really working at the moment, or because we're running in the mornings, but I'm feeling oddly content with life at the moment.
And as I haven't written a post in a while as well, some smaller life updates: UPS lots my PC in the post for a month (but eventually found it after they admitted they lost it); it's snowed quite a bit around Christmas and the last few days (it was fluffy and magical on Christmas, wet and grim recently); we've been skiing three times; and we've made a couple of friends as well, which is always nice.
tags:
life,
self,
vancouver
permalink | posted by nathan on Saturday, the 8th of January, 2022, when he should have been sleeping