This week: a book review, a “smart” trashcan, fitness progress, an accident, movie review, insight on media bias, and travel plans.

For folks not in the know, this is a weekly stream of consciousness zero-agenda “here’s what’s happening” or “here’s what’s interesting” post.

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What’s been happening

• I read Modern Patriarch this week, and it’s a nice take on transplanting seemingly incompatible ideals like equality and liberty to a Wuxia cultivation world. Still on Book 2, and feels like there’s a long way to go.

• I recently saw a perfect example where engineering and political showmanship trumps design. Presenting: the smart trashcan right next to the bus stand near my house.

• The 1Password auto submit feature is really irritating. It is surprising even when it works as it’s designed: I expect an auto-fill and suddenly realize that the page has been submitted, but it’s worse when login form designers decide folks need to check a box or click a button (I’m looking at you, bank websites!) before they login: then the login errors out and there’s no way to recover.

• I did 2 of my scheduled workouts this week and planning to do the third today. It’s been a year plus since I did any form of regular exercise, and there’s a lot of body pain all over. My schedule has a warmup routine and progressively increasing reps and sets for a bunch of whole body exercises for this month. I find this kind of self-paced routines the best: I like watching videos to learn good form and checking off done items in a spreadsheet when completing routines. Ammu is the opposite though: she loves working out with her trainer. I’ve also started tracking my weight (I’m about 12 kilos above my ideal weight) and a rough intake of my calories.

• Rocky (the elder) and Pranchi (the pup) have settled down in Vellayani. We went there twice last week to see them, and it’s fun to watch the little one playing around and irritating the older dog. Pranchi is really naughty, and looks like he’ll be spoiled thoroughly by Ammu’s parents 🙂

• Ammu’s parents got into a car accident this week. A pickup lorry overtook them from the right and crashed into their right side, pretty much destroying the right fender and the front bumper. Thankfully they were unharmed, but there’s a pretty large repair bill. I took them to the Thampanoor Police station where the police displayed exemplary behavior: I think it’s the best that I’ve been treated in a government establishment till date. They were patient with us, listened to our entire story, and helped us with filing a general diary entry (online, via THUNA, which is one of those rare good government websites).

• Also watched Purusha Pretham today. ?????? (pretham) is a fun word in Malayalam as it usually means ghost, but can also colloquially reference a dead body depending on the context. It’s cool how the script makes even a dead body humorous, and it’s a fun watch!

• Saw this on Whatsapp (originally via Twitter), it’s when the Economist chooses to support one kind of Islam over another. Politics trumps all, really. Also, I learnt enough German that I could figure out the gist behind the text even without translating it first: links = left, rechts = right, von = of, kann = can etc. The translated text is:

On the left the cover of @TheEconomist
On the right the original photo
What's missing?
The Palestinian flag.

You can try to erase the Palestinian flag, but you can never erase solidarity with the people of Palestine.

Links of the Week

• Ammu & I are thinking of visiting Greece sometime towards the end of the year. I shudder to think of the visa process again though. The nearest VFS is in Chennai, and document collection is a pain. Why can’t Europe issue 10 year visas like the US?
• Liked this list of NodeJS best practices and this toolbox of libraries grouped by area.

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