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.”

Home | Old Book Illustrations

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.

When your coworkers absolutely smash your birthday

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.

Spaghetti sandwich - Wikipedia

Last night I dreamed about eating spaghetti sandwiches.

I even dreamed that there was a wikipedia article for them.

I was pleased to learn this morning that this is, in fact, the case.

A Further Post Regarding Lemon Pig

This was the “recipe” post that inspired Lemon Pig, something I saw on twitter a few years ago, but failed to do.

But when it came around again this year, I had to join in. I’m quite proud of my wonky-eyed lemon pig. As soon as it was made, I gave it to my friends children, my honorary niece and nephews, who used it to keep away a “mysterious thing” they heard making noise outside (it was the wind). When they went to bed they took Lemon Pig with them, and I heard them yelling “Good night, Lemon Pig!! Good luck!!”

I’m never again going to miss out on making a Lemon Pig for New Years.