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Replay 2020 by Apple Music for Rachel
(I switched from Spotify to Apple Music earlier this year, but damn it I still wanna play the wrap up game.)
National Jello salad leftovers week?
This ad is apparently from 1959 and I wish it was not sold out at this link or I would buy it. https://etsy.me/3pqFXLf (via 70s dinner party)
SpaceHey — a space for friends.
SpaceHey: MySpace rebooted by an 18-year-old German student, who was five years old at its peak popularity
Selfie to celebrate the first time I’ve had to put on makeup and a proper shirt since March. I had a meeting at work and it was the first time I was forced to use my video.
Email Issues
So my maiden name is Barker. And there’s this other Rachel Barker, who either genuinely thinks she has my email address, or just uses it as her spam email.
But over the years I have learned her entire address, most of her family member’s names, including mother’s maiden name, and a metric tonne of other information about her, like where she works and banks. I am unwilling to get rid of this email (which is a gmail address that I have owned literally since the first month gmail was a thing), but I basically only log in to delete her emails at this point.
Last month I got a notification that she was trying to log in to outlook.com, with an email address I own (and have since about 2006) but don’t ever use. So I tried to log in myself, but the account was locked. I talked to Microsoft account services, and they verified me as the account owner, but I had to wait 30 days for the account to unlock.
So I did. And today when the 30 days were up, I logged in, changed the password and set up two factor authentication. When I got in I saw that she has ALSO been using the outlook email as her own for years. She never replies, obviously, since she couldn’t actually access the email. But people have been emailing her at that address.
Is she terrible at email? Does she just hate everyone in her life and gives them a“fake” email? It is unclear.
But if you’re ever googling yourself, Rachel Barker who lives in Southborough, Kent, UK: Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you don’t own any emails using rachel.barker. You don’t own it on any service, not outlook, not gmail. Please stop giving it out, I’m uncomfortable knowing this much about you.
Quarnatine Fashion
This morning I am wearing a lovely Frank and Oak sweater in light peach, which I purchased just before the self isolation and never got to wear, paired with a pair of blue LuluLemon leggings that have a stain on the knee, and a burgundy Walmart hoodie overtop.
On Friday I went for my run, but my Runn sensor continues not to work so I was just using my Apple watch. I ran for an hour and ten minutes and my watch said that was just over 10K. I know it’s a lie, but it made me feel good anyway.
At work we started watching Listen to your Heart yesterday, which is the new Bachelor property that also incorporates singing for some reason. We had all decided we were NOT going to watch it, after struggling through the last season of the Bachelor, but of course quarantine times are not regular times. Anyway it’s terrible, it’s a Bachelor show where they sing at each other all the time so obviously it’s terrible. It’s only six episodes so I’m definitely going to finish it.
I’ve also just finished watching all of the original Party of Five and MAN it’s a fucking SLOG. The sixth season is absolute garbage. Charlie and Kirsten are married, why did they ever break up in the first place. Bailey gets into an ivy league business school somehow despite having dropped out of college, struggling to keep his restaurant afloat, and basically rape-dating every single woman he ever goes out with. And what was with the unceremonious removal of Sarah from the show? Julia continues to treat every man terribly but somehow fails up just like all of them. And Claudia is off to Julliard but I do not care because she was often the worst Salinger of them all. They were all terrible the whole show, much like when I finally watched all of Sex and the City. I’ve come to the concluison that the late 90s/early 2000s were just full of TERRIBLE people being on TV, and not in the fun way like It’s Always Sunny.
Anyway, there are a bunch of disconnected quarantine thoughts for your Wednesday.
Animal Crossing and Running
As the title indicates, right now this is really all I’m doing. The 10K my husband and I were running in May was cancelled, but is still proceeding“virtually”, so I’m still planning to run it.
Last week I ran my fastest 10K so far.
I only had to stop to drink water once, too. And I watched Top Gun during, which I had never seen and is AMAZING.
But I didn’t post it right away because as soon as I was done (and showered), I went right back to playing Animal Crossing. I am keeping all my AC posts segregated to their own twitter account but here’s just one - in this game, even if you have an Amiibo card it’s not a guarantee that the villager will move in to your town .
My favourite villager that I have a card for is Erik.
It took me three tries, but he finally decided to move to my Island this morning. I am feeling REALFEELINGSOFHAPPINESS.
New Horizons: Departure Date Approaching
Basically all I care about on the internet right now is the impeding release date of the new Animal Crossing. (Two more days!) It’s keeping me from being sad that the 10K i have been training for is very likely going to be cancelled. It’s also keeping me away from the news generally.
So here is some adorable Animal Crossing fan art that I saw on reddit and really really loved. It’s by u/crysmontas.
I’ve hesitated to post anything about the virus at all. Despite feeling quite a bit of anxiety, I know I am very fortunate. I am very lucky to have a job that allows me to work full time from home, and very lucky too that I actually enjoy staying home, so my life has not been impacted too much by the pandemic. The minor inconvenience about the run, and the anxiety about the virus generally, are small burdens.
Chins up, everyone; keep that six foot distance, flatten the curve.
Finally, There’s a Social Network Without Any People
“According to the makers of the app, when you post, all the comments are made by bots trained on thousands of“real conversations.” For a dollar each, you can buy bots that will troll you or make dad jokes. It’s deeply refreshing in some ways. All the minutiae that I post about is treated like the most fascinating and mind blowing content to this army of bots. I love being popular.”
Oldbookillustrations.com is a library of thousands of old book illustrations, with searchable name, artist, source, date, which book it was in, etc. (via kottke.org)
First Run of 35
I guess this is my running blog now? I don’t know but this is happening.
It was my birthday on Tuesday, so this is my first run as a 35-year-old. It’s not my regular day either, I had to bump it up by a day because I’m busy tomorrow.
So here we are, and I found this run IMPOSSIBLY difficult. I have been pushing my pace quite a lot, trying to improve my speed. As you can see I’m a full six minutes faster than last week. But as you can also see I had to stop twice (total run time) to get my breath and re-hydrate, so I was pushing the pace too hard, I think. I’ll need to start ramping my time up more slowly.
So yeah, that’s my 10K this week. And maybe I’ll find some things to post that aren’t about running soon.
We Got a New Treadmill Sensor
Last week we got this treadmill sensor by NPE.
And damned if it doesn’t turn out that I run even slower than I thought I did.
Runn syncs with a variety of running apps; I’m using the excellent ismoothrun, which also syncs with your Apple Watch and contributes to your “rings”.
So okay, the downside is I’m about two-and-a-half minutes slower per kilometer than I thought I was, according to the Runn sensor. I’ve been told that I might find I’m a bit faster once I start running outside, which I plan to do once the weather gets better, around the end of March/beginning of April.
The upside is I can run for an hour and a half straight, which is a big achievement for a girl with asthma, who used to do literally anything to get out of gym class in school.
I also picked up some new shoes last week, and tried them out for the first time today. And I have to say, they are excellent. They are very cushion-y. Whatever“CUSHLON” is, I could feel the difference over my two year old Adidas, for sure.
Humble Pi by Matt Parker: 9780593084694 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
Pepsi initially refused his claim:“The Harrier jet in the Pepsi commercial is fanciful and is simply included to create a humorous and entertaining ad.” But Leonard was already lawyered up and ready to fight. His attorneys fired back with“This is a formal demand that you honor your commitment and make immediate arrangements to transfer the new Harrier jet to our client.” Pepsi didn’t budge. Leonard sued, and it went to court.
From Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Matt Parker, and via lithub.com
Becoming Someone who Runs
On Wednesday I registered for my first ever 10K. It’s in May. This was thanks to the encouragement of my husband, who ran the same 10K two years ago, and who is going to run it with me this year. (I definitely would not have even thought to register without his support, for I am, by and large, extremely lazy.)
Today I ran my fastest (indoor) 10K ever.
For a“real runner” this isn’t a great time. In fact, it would be considered pretty slow. Okay, very slow. But it’s the fastest I’ve ever run, and I’m pretty proud of myself. I’ve been running consistently (two to three times a week) for about a year and a half. I’ve been running approximately 10K once a week since October. I’m going to start ramping up now for the 10K race. But the fact that I could run 10K on the treadmill today and not keel over, not even want to stop and walk, felt like a real accomplishment.
Yes I would like to be faster before my run, and yes I will need a lot of training to get there. But today I’m feeling pretty pleased with my progress.