Week ending 9/26/2021

:rose: Hey, some actual dating progress this week! Nothing major, but I messaged a couple new people (something I should do far more if I have any hope of actually meeting someone interesting :smile:), and one of them responded. So thatā€™s something! I donā€™t generally love sharing my failures and disappointments, but youā€™ll definitely hear about if it I get a date or two. :wink:

Writing this Iā€™m also self-consciously aware that I might sound kind of sad or desperate, I mean ā€œOMG, someone talked to me!ā€, right? I think Iā€™m my own worst enemy here though: if I messaged more people Iā€™d have a lot more opportunities and a lot more messages. So itā€™s more of a victory for myself, just pushing past my self doubt and frustration with the numbers game to actually reach out, and getting a response is honestly a bit of a bonus.

:muscle: This past week I made some major progress on some important but long procrastinated tasks in my real estate job. Ultimately one of them actually turned out to be almost exactly as annoying and tedious as I had imagined (and which was the reason for not doing it sooner, or so I told myself). But once I got into it I just pushed through it, and was glad in the end, of course.

:sparkles: When I came onboard with Anytype as a consultant, one of the biggest things I wanted to do was get them to migrate their alpha test forum from Flarum to Discourse. As an alpha tester for quite some time before I worked with them, I had first-hand experience of the many little issues and limitations that Flarum unfortunately has. In fact when I wrote about it originally here, it was before I really had as much direct experience with it, and now Iā€™m much more dubious of its approach and its long-term future. Itā€™s actually quite possible it will ultimately make a better digital garden platform than Discourse will due to its highly plugin-based approach, which could theoretically get rid of many of the things I just donā€™t need or use in my Discourse-based digital garden. That said, for the community of a fast-growing software product, and a platform that needs to be used to track all issues and feature requests, Flarum just fell short. Anyway, it has taken 3 months to get there, with many bumps along the road, but we are finally just about ready to make the switch, and Iā€™m excited! :partying_face:

:bug: Despite having raised numerous butterflies at home over the last 2 years, mostly Anise Swallowtails, I still had never seen one of them pupate and survive in the wild. This past week I finally spotted one! It helped that I knew how the caterpillars behave when theyā€™re getting ready. They wander, find a spot, anchor themselves and make a little silk hammock, then go still for a couple days, and finally emerge as a pupa. I saw a caterpillar appearing to be anchoring itself on a walk recently, and when I returned a couple days later it had indeed pupated! Now Iā€™m really curious to watch it over time and see whether it emerges or overwinters. Itā€™s rather later in the season, so it may well stick around until the spring! (meanwhile I have like 10 pupae at home still yet to emerge this yearā€¦)

:tv: I finished watching the 6 episode Loki series this past week and overallā€¦ meh. I just didnā€™t get pulled in enough by the characters and story. They seemed to want to tell the story of Lokiā€™s redemption all over again, which I get, but rather than happening over 6+ movies and years of time (I think), it happened seemingly rather quickly, much of it covered in expositional recap videos of the previous movies, and pop psychology quips from Mobius. Lokiā€™s emotional connections with other characters seemed rushed, improbabilities (if not impossibilities) abounded, the stakes never felt that high, and perhaps most important, the ending just fell a bit flat for me, and didnā€™t really explain much of why things were they way they were with the TVA, etc. I did really enjoy some aspects, the TVA itself had a fun aesthetic and was well realized, there were some good (and some not so good) twists, the alterna-Loki variants were definitely a lot of fun. But as a whole it didnā€™t really land for me. :man_shrugging:

:brain: I had my second IFS therapy session and while it feels like itā€™s going slower than part of me would like, I think it shows promise. I also watched a video of a demo IFS session and found it bringing up some interesting emotions, so clearly there are things there to find, things close to the surfaceā€¦ Iā€™m hoping by session 4-5 Iā€™ll have a better understanding of whether I want to continue this work, and whether I like the therapist Iā€™m working with.

:hugs: I saw my mom for the first time in many weeks. Sheā€™s only an hour away and Iā€™d like to visit more, but I just donā€™t make it happen as often as Iā€™d like. Something to think about and work onā€¦ Anyway, I was able to install a water filter for her, and I always find it satisfying to do little home improvement projects like that, for myself, or for others - especially for others. Many of these kinds of things are not especially difficult, but can be intimidating for people, so itā€™s nice to just dive in and making it work, even if itā€™s mostly through gumption and trial and error. :grin: She also showed me some of her pottery work, from a class she started a few weeks ago. Sheā€™s already making some really beautiful pieces, and itā€™s a great reminder of how artistic and talented my mom is. She doesnā€™t always give herself time to express that, and itā€™s so nice to see her find a good outlet. :blush:

:plate_with_cutlery: Finally, due to the pandemic, and lately the Delta variant especially, I have not been going out to eat as much as Iā€™d like. As it happens one of the better restaurants around is actually just a block from my house, Juanita & Maude, so itā€™s often my go-to when I do dine out. They had an open outdoor table this past week, and a couple items on the menu that were calling my name, so I went for it. Usually Iā€™d sit at the bar, but Iā€™m not quite feeling up to indoor dining again yetā€¦

As usual, it was quite good, especially the food. I started with a crispy tongue dish, which was delicious (why isnā€™t tongue served more often!?), then had a pork belly entree (yes, it was an indulgent night :smile:), and finished with a unique tapioca-based dessert with a fruit Iā€™d never tried before: cupuaƧu, which is apparently a relative of cacao fruit, and to me tasted kind of tangy, with a hint of funk to it, almost like a tiny whiff of durian (at this small amount it was a good thing!). They have a new dessert chef, and this was one of her first real swings for the fences, but yeah I think sheā€™s going to work out very nicely. She follows someone who I thought made some of the best desserts Iā€™ve ever had, so expectations were high. :wink: They also have a new bartender, I believe, and sheā€™s created a fairly extensive menu of largely experimental drinks. I sampled a few, and though theyā€™re a bit hit and miss, there is definite promise there, and it looks to result in a much more interesting cocktail program than theyā€™ve had for some time. So Iā€™m excited about that.

Iā€™m the kind of person who takes photos of my food often, but almost exclusively for my own later reference (I like to write notes about meals when I dine out), and I very, very seldom post them publicly. Itā€™s pretty much never on my mind when I take a food photo. But this tapioca dessert is quite pretty, and you may be trying to picture it in your head anyway, so here you go: