Week notes 2026-17
What a beautiful week. After rain almost every day last week, the sun started shining! It got warm, things dried out, culminating in a 21-degree (Celsius) Sunday afternoon, when we went out to hit some softballs with our Monday night softball crew.
I've been dealing with some difficult things at work that are affecting my mental health. Nothing major, just some things I should have to deal with have been put on my plate. I'll explain some day, maybe; I've written about it privately anyway.
On the sports side - my team, the Senators, were swept in the first round. They put up a good fight in games 2 and 4, but they played the worst playoff game I've ever seen them play in game 3. If they had played better they might have had a better chance. Oh well. That's sports. The Ottawa Charge (PWHL) have made the playoffs again this year so I'll be watching them. And the Blue Jays are still playing.
I got back on the microphone to record a short podcast too. It's nothing special but it's an important first step to record regularly.
On the tech front:
- Finally fixed the long deploy time for my projects website (I think). It should skip processing each image every time I trigger a deploy...won't find out until I make a new post.
- Going back to my JBL over-ear headphones my wife bought me years ago. Listened to The Big Lebowski soundtrack on my iPod (lossless format, downloaded, ripped from CD, using a 3.5mm cable) and it sounded wonderful.
- Video games: I think I finally figured out how to play NHL 26; playing on Pro mode is challenging but not too hard, and playing on Rookie mode is far too easy.
2026 projects and goals
Last week's goals
- Writing: game review (Yoshi's Island) ❌ Well...still didn't get there. I wrote a lot this week but haven't started this piece.
- For fun: use one pen until the ink runs dry✅ Obviously have not run the ink dry yet but I started using my BIC Cristal ReNew. Wrote a bit about it this week.
- Photography: find interesting things to photograph with new camera (Pentax point & shoot)✅
I don't know if I succeeded or not. I took more photos though, that's for sure.
- Writing: short write-up of the new camera✅ This one was a gimme I think.
- To-do: book vet appointment; book hotel for return trip from vacation; replace license plates on the car ✅❌ Did 1 of 3 from this one.
- Hobby/fun: Pending nice weather, some more drone flying with focus on getting better photos & video. ❌ Weather was beautiful, but I didn't take the drone out.
This week's goals
- Writing: game review (Yoshi's Island)
- Photography: pick up a new roll of film. Take more photos.
- Writing: Albums I listened to in Q1 2026
- Music: listen to Metric's new album, Romanticize the Drive
Link Rolloff
Links removed from my Shared Links on Raindrop
Things I Made This Week
- Yashica MF-2 | Photos by Stephen Gower
- New film camera
- Wednesday thoughts 14
- I wrote a zine when I was 10
- My own BIC pen experiment
- 2026 - Week 17 | Weeknotes Podcast