More updates
My previous update-on-what-I’ve-been-up-to post was written six weks ago, even though I didn’t post it until two weeks ago. So here’s a followup with more-recent notes about what I’ve been doing.
(…I wrote most of this shortly after posting the other one, but then didn’t get around to posting it for another two weeks.)
- Traveling—spent a couple of weeks out of town.
- Baking sourdough every couple of weeks. That continues to go well, and the bread continues to be largely delicious. I’ve now purchased a bread lame (from Baker of Seville) to make scoring the loaves easier—though the two times I’ve used it so far, it wasn’t significantly easier or better than just using a razor blade. But it does tempt me to lift it high and exclaim, “At last, my arm is complete again!”
- Acquiring rambutan. Last summer, I had it for the first time, and loved it; but all of the local Asian markets were out of it (apparently it’s often only available around May). But this year, I found it! (At 99 Ranch.) Also lychee and longan, but it turns out that I like rambutan more.
- Editing some documentation for this year’s WSFS (Worldcon) Business Meeting. Also, attending said meeting, and discussing some WSFS-related stuff outside of the meeting.
- Transferring my web-articles-to-read list and my links-to-post list into the Raindrop bookmarking app. I migrated away from Raindrop years ago because I wasn’t using it effectively, but recently my HTML file containing links hasn’t been serving me very well, and something that Sumana mentioned made me think that using a cross-platform bookmarking app might work better for me. Seems to be working well so far, though it’s reminding me that the sheer volume of both the to-read and the to-post lists (about 1,500 links on each of those two lists, plus more links on other related lists) means I’m unlikely to get through them anytime soon, if ever.
- Reading (or skimming) various works on the Hugo ballot. I’ve finished voting in most of the categories (aside from the ones that I’m intentionally not voting in); am now looking at materials in the last two categories that I haven’t decided on yet. There’s about two weeks left before the voting deadline.
- Continuing to make (very gradual) progress through my to-do list.
- Removing some hidden spammy material from my website that I hope was a remnant of the last hack there, not evidence of a new hack.
- Posting to Words & Stuff. I’ve now posted every couple of days for the past two-plus months, and I have posts scheduled every couple of days for the next couple of weeks. Gradually making a dent in my backlog of about a thousand items to post.
- Dealing with some very itchy bug bites. I suspect bedbugs. Have washed bedding, which may have temporarily stopped the problem, but I should probably still spend some time cleaning my room sometime soonish, sigh. (No advice, please.)
- Inviting jurors to the Otherwise Award jury. We now have a full jury!
- Going to a medical appointment. My Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) levels continue to (a) fluctuate up and down, but (b) trend upwards over time. At the appointment, my urologist gave me a couple of options; we decided to wait six months and do another PSA test to see if that provides more clarity. (If it goes down by then, then the likelihood of my having prostate cancer becomes very low. If it goes up, then we’ll probably do another biopsy. (The previous biopsy, last year, didn’t turn up any problems.))
- Petsitting for a weekend.
- Watching s4 of The Way Home. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it much. :( (I liked s1 a lot, and s3 reasonably well; thought s2 was only OK.)
- Watching s2 of Sugar. I’m not liking it as much as I liked s1, but still intrigued by various things about it.
- Watching Star City. Found it largely grim and depressing all the way through, and felt that it was missing most of what I love about For All Mankind.
- Looking forward to watching Heartstopper Forever (which is out now) and Ted Lasso s4 (which launches next month).
- Almost finishing section 4 of Duolingo Spanish. I was a week or two away from being done with that section when they suddenly reorganized things, and I was suddenly about three or four weeks from being done. Still making progress, though.
- Finally finishing drafting an article about Joanna Russ and fanfic that I started writing nearly a year ago but hadn’t quite finished. Unfortunately, it now turns out that I need to revise it extensively. But the revision is going well so far.