Week of Mar 5th, 2025

Work

I’m getting better at pitch writing! And I’m getting better at not being overwhelmed by the number of tasks I have to do that have to do with tinkering. I’ve spent a lot of the last week giving in to all my urges to over-engineer my personal work set up. The last time I did this was almost a decade ago - when my parents bought me my first MacBook for my 18th birthday, and I immediately spent 6 months installing all manners of *nixes on it. My favourite set up at the time was arch + i3wm because of how keyboard first it was (I’m a little too into keyboard shortcuts for someone who doesn’t know how to touchtype) but I had to abandon it because the top bar buttons didn’t do a good enough job of controlling my Spotify, and ultimately I needed to have a seamless desktop over an idealistic one.

Today I’m very locked into this *Nix setup (see particulars here) and I will keep my tinkering to apps I’m building :)

Life

It was my dad’s 63rd birthday this weekend, and I got him a carrom board. I know he’s been wanting one for a long time, but I was under the impression it was in some misguided attempt to “teach the children cultural values”. I will never forget the look on his face when my brother carried the board in. His eyes wide, his mouth opened, his hand over his face. I felt so much pride in being able to read my dad and know he would like this. Is this what good gift giving feels like?

We had an excellent day - he taught me to play carrom and then he taught me how to drive. I feel like I finally have access to the dad I’ve been wanting for over twenty years. Is he going soft in his old age?!!?! Or is it that Mark Twain quote¹ playing out again?

On Saturday I went to a dance party (where there was no dancing) and a birthday party (where there was LOTS of dancing). At this second party, I became good friends with the host - the partner of the birthday girl who was my friend - and I spoke a lot of Kannada to her! I know Kannada, yes, but since my friend circles are a cultural melting pot, English is the lingua-franca. This relegates Kannada to a language I use to speak with service workers - the help, auto drivers, baristas. I do default to it in any public setting, but there’s only so far you can go with retention of a language in a formal setting. So this new friend and I went out on Monday and did puzzles together and I discovered - a. I enjoy speed puzzling and want to do more of it, and b. My Kannada is pretty crap, actually. I don’t want to learn the script yet, because hello - TOO MANY HOBBIES - but I want to have casual conversation in Kannada more!

I’ve spent a lot of this week hanging out at a neighbourhood cafe and having lunch with a friend beforehand. I would like to once again remind the audience that it is completely worth it to append your life and re-organise it so you see your friends three times a week.

Litchee had dental scaling done on Wednesday. I wrote parts of this note from the vet’s office, with Jalebi’s leash around my feet and me trying to ignore his incessant bleating. I was in the waiting room for three hours and I felt like I was a young mother abandoned at sea handling a colicky child. Every time there is a complication with my babies, I have renewed respect for the parents of human children.

Health

One headache this week, on Saturday before the party, but that was to be expected.

To prep for Litchee’s dental scaling and general anaesthesia I had to wake up at 2am to feed Litchee (2 days in a row) and again at 7am to take him in time + I’ve had really full working days. As a result, I haven’t had the sleep I need and my body responded to that. I passed tF out on Wednesday after we got back from the vet and I still spent Thursday recovering. For the last two days I’ve been in more ambient pain than in the last few weeks. I’m bloated, and uncomfortable, and the stairs are winding me up again. Classic flare. I need to put in more effort to protect my 10 hours at all costs.

Learning

Did you know that Mandarin learners can take an exam called the HSK which is on a scale of 1 to 7, equivalent to the A1/A2, B1/B2, etc levels defined by the CEFR? It gives you a certificate recognised by The People’s Republic of China (Mainland). There’s a different exam, the TOCFL, administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan) - equivalent to the TOEFL. For lower levels of both, you need a vocabulary of about 500 words. Duolingo says I have about a hundred so far, so I reckon I can write the exam some time next year? I’d really like to work towards it.

I still don’t know why I’d do it, and what I want from it. If I want to expand career opportunities in Taiwan, I’d probably want to do the TOCFL, but the scope of recognition is much lesser, and it’s also a little harder - Taiwan uses traditional chinese glyphs where the mainland uses simplified. So far I’m treating this exam decision (and this whole language learning decision) the way people who grow up in more secure economies and societies have meandering career paths - do what I’m having fun with and let the chips fall.

Media Diet

Watching

I watched an episode of Please Like Me with Ankur, which immediately led to us watching Crashing together. Unfortunately, he used the words “could not stop laughing” to describe the show. What actually happened was that my body repeatedly tried to collapse in itself under the weight of all the cringe and the second hand embarrassment. Alright, it was a good show - compelling characters, well written plot, excellently reversed tropes - but I am going to need to watch a romcom or four to remove the taste of this show from my face.

Reading

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande - I started this because Getting Things Done had an issue on my kindle. No, they’re not actually similar, but I’m enjoying the stories of medical things-went-wrong (Robin Cook, anyone?) and the efficiencies observed after checklists were enacted.

The audiobook for The Butcher’s Masquerade - because I can’t seem to let go of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series just yet.

Listening

Vulfpeck’s new album is out! I can’t say I’m enjoying it as much as ONE or TWO, but maybe it will grow on me.

Around the web

No major reading happened this week (that I can recall) but have a gander at Prasanna’s birthday Sudoku.