Tuesday Thoughts 05
I have some thoughts today! It's my first work day of the week as I type this, though, so I may or may not get through all of my thoughts today. Or even remember all of them. But let's get started.
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On colds...
Colds are objectively the worst. It's an infection that can't be cured, you can only treat the symptoms. And the symptoms change daily! Buy some cold medicine to deal with your sore throat and cough? Well guess what! You didn't even need a full bottle, because now your throat is fine and you're dealing with congestion and mucus. (I will give colds credit for this: at least this stage lasts a long while, so buying medicine for this is at least "worth it".)
And depending on the severity, the symptoms are probably not bad enough to prevent you from working, so it's tough to make the decision to call in sick. You could work from home...but what if your employer requires you to be in the office x days a week? You're not supposed to just not come in, you're supposed to call in sick. For a cold. If you're lucky you get a cold that actually does knock you out. I had that the last few days - I was ready to sleep by 8pm three nights in a row.
I had the day off Monday, and I am very thankful that the cold wasn't so bad that it ruined my vacation day for me.
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On tidying up...
I spent part of my day off this week cleaning up. My basement was looking like a real mess - made worse by going to my parents' house to pick up some old video games (mostly empty boxes, but also some PS1 games that I could play on my PS3). I did a good job, I think; we have a new-to-us cube shelf I nabbed from work as part of the furniture they're getting rid of as we move to a new building. So I shoved that into a perfect space for it and moved some things onto it. Then I carefully put away the video game paraphenalia, which is when I discovered a long-lost disc: NHL 2005 for the GameCube!
On the surface this is not an exciting find for most people, but a while back I was looking to play some older NHL games for...reasons I can't remember now. But this was one of the games I just knew I had, but couldn't find it. I brought the empty case to my house from my parents' place, and went on a search for that tiny disc. Turns out it was hiding in a Mario Kart Double Dash case - for some reason this case has two disc holders, and NHL 2005 ended up there. So, +1 for tidying up.
On a related note I played a game of NHL 2000 for the PS1, and it holds up reasonably well for its era but oh man...it is pure arcade action.
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On the Year of Not Tracking...
Over the weekend the thought popped into my head to not track things next year. By tracking, I mean using The Storygraph, Letterboxd, Last.fm. I don't know why, but this was specific to books - I got the idea to just not log every single thing I do online next year. I might keep track privately in a little pocket notebook but just not being uptight about making sure I track every single page read and putting them online for everyone to see. I read for myself, not as a performative act, so there really is no "point" to tracking (on a website).
This is not the first time the thought of not tracking has crossed my mind in general, but it's the first time I've seriously considered it. I've seen other people online talk about how they don't see the value in tracking media intake, and that they feel it's performative. And it is - as much as it's a tool for yourself to see what you've read and provide reviews for other people, it's also a big signpost saying "look at me, see what I read?". I have a link to my Storygraph profile on my Now page (as well as Letterboxd, and Last.FM). I guess in that sense I'm giving people a look into my interests, but that is also pretty vain to think that people are clicking through my Now page and are interested enough to want to know what I'm reading.
The idea is becoming increasingly enticing the more I think about it. I think what I'd like to do is record when I finished a book in a pocket book, and write a few brief thoughts about it. And then I'll move on! I'll finish out this year first and see how things go.
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On a fun little CSS addition I made to my blog...
Over on my personal space - https://srgower.com - I created a CSS style for "tagging" people I'm calling out as a mention. It's very bare-bones, and is truly a style in name only. It doesn't actually notify anybody (unless they have webmentions or something I guess?), and can be used on any word.
Here's how it's implemented (note that I am using variables for colours, but you don't have to do that if you don't want to):
/* "Name tag" appearance like on Discord, Teams, etc. */
.nametag {
background-color: var(--text-color);
color: var(--bg-color);
text-decoration: none;
padding: 2px 5px;
border-radius: 3px;
font-family: monospace;
}
.nametag:hover {
background-color: var(--text-color);
color: var(--color-secondary);
text-decoration: none;
padding: 2px 5px;
border-radius: 3px;
cursor: pointer;
font-family: monospace;
}
.nametag::before {
content: "@";
}
And if you have a dark mode set up you probably want to add this too:
/* Dark mode for the name tag */
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
.nametag {
background-color: var(--text-color);
color: var(--bg-color);
text-decoration: none;
padding: 2px 5px;
border-radius: 3px;
font-family: monospace;
}
.nametag:hover {
background-color: var(--text-color);
color: var(--color-primary);
text-decoration: none;
padding: 2px 5px;
border-radius: 3px;
cursor: pointer;
font-family: monospace;
}
}
Implementing it is quite simple. Here's how I would do it if I were "tagging" somebody with a link:
<a href="https://birming.com" class="nametag">Robert Birming</a> is great at designing cool CSS themes for Bear bloggers.
The result:
Robert Birming is great at designing cool CSS themes for Bear bloggers.
(I added the @ symbol manually, I feel it just completes the aesthetic I'm looking for.) UPDATE I actually changed the code to automatically add the "@" symbol.
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As far as coming back from a vacation day goes, today has been pretty smooth. I was able to take time away to write up this post, after all. I have another vacation day coming up next Tuesday - I plan on continuing my model painting, and maybe playing some of the classic video games I unearthed in my basement clean-up / purge.
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Things I still want to work on:
- Interictal confusion (I'm really using the wrong term for this, but it's written down in another book and I don't have it with me)
- Write-up about the "Dreamy Sounds" mixtape (I have started this but it's sitting as a draft in OneDrive)
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