January
The start of January was hectic. Several school projects that I left hanging needed to be done in a short period of time. I spent whole first weekend of January catching up Blockchain and TLS homeworks for Cybersecurity labs and a few afternoons drawing scratches for the Art class. Anyway, hell or high water I still squeezed in 2 weeks of ski touring in Krkonoše in terrific conditions. In the typical Krkonoše manner the ridges were cold and windy but a few meters lower we had better conditions than in the Switzerland. Tone of powder, great visibility and only a few other enthusiast cutting their way up for the minute of glory on the way down.
The 2021 is going well so far. I am running 10k per day so far, writing slightly less than desired, skiing more than I hoped for, being considerate of my spendings, and still enjoying every day like there’s no other.
Although not a formal mental-health diagnosis, duck syndrome has mostly been described in college or graduate students and refers to the situation in which the sufferer looks completely calm on a superficial level while in reality they are frantically trying to keep up with the demands of their life. Duck syndrome often indicates that the person experiencing it is suffering from clinical depression, anxiety, or another mental illness. Duck syndrome and a culture of misery
Reading
- How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell, I like the writing slightly more with every page that I read. Certain ideas in the book are too abstract for me to grasp but other concepts seem to resonate with me. For example the phenomena of Context Collapse. Context collapse describes how our internet self is usually the lowest denominator because we are sharing with broad spectrum of people and want to please everyone. Example in the book mentioned following situation: imagine that you return from lengthy vacation abroad in an exotic country and want to tell someone. You would tell the adventurous and humorous version to your friends, slightly less inappropriate version to you parents, and informative and shorter version to your grandparents. Now with our social media reaching all of these groups we are constantly thinking up things that would go over well with all of them instead of saying the right things to the right people. How to Do Nothing presents more such ideas to think about.
- The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, brilliant fictional book with deep philosophical and scientific reach that definitely earned its place on the list of my most favorite books.
- Growth by Vaclav Smil, had this book in queue for quite some time, now it’s time for it to live up to the expectations.
- Chemistry of Cast Iron Seasoning: A Science-Based How-To tl;dr: start with linseed oil, rub the pan, bake, rinse and repeat.
- Cameras and Lenses one great article for in depth understanding of cameras and lenses. Also the best interactive examples in an article I have ever seen.
Listening
Liquicity release bunch of DJ sets in a series called Hello 2021. Polygon and Maduk are currently my favorites and I have them on repeat every run.
Coffee
- BIO Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Koke by mamacoffee. A Christmas gift, perfect one nevertheless. Best coffee in a very long time, acidic and rich in flavor.
- Nikaragua Salomón Chavarría by mamacoffee. Another Christmas gift.