Day 340: Not much to say about today. A quiet Saturday at home. Watched a couple movies. Not a whole lot else.
Personal
The stuff about me and my life. The “diary” side of blogging.
📚 Clarkesworld Issue 211 edited by Neil Clarke
24/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A particularly strong issue this month. I really enjoyed “The Lark Ascending” by Eleanna Castroianni, “An Intergalactic Smuggler’s Guide to Homecoming” by Tia Tashiro, “The Indomitable Captain Holli” by Rich Larson, “The Rambler” by Shen Dacheng, translated by Cara Healey, and “Occurrence at O1339” by Kelly Jennings.
Year 50 Day 339
Day 338: Just getting away from the computer for a few minutes and hanging out in the very ’70s/’80s institutional chic of our employee lounge/breakroom.
Year 50 Day 338
Day 338: An important part of my nightly duties — preparing our tea as we relax before going to bed.
Year 50 Day 337
Day 337: A shirt that came with me to con this year, but didn’t get worn (because it’s been worn at con the past few years, and while many of my shirts get worn every year, some of them do need to be rotated out every so often).
Year 50 Day 336
Day 336: Made it through my first day of work back in the real world! Not nearly as many fairies, aliens, Imperial Stormtroopers, or Starfleet officers, but I suppose these humans I work with are nice enough.
📚 Star Trek II Biographies by William Rotsler
23/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Something of a historical curiosity now, these “biographies” of the principal characters have since been nearly or entirely overwritten by later films or more official pseudo-canon works. Still, it’s a fun artifact of this point in Trek’s real-world history, and as the first published material giving Uhura’s first name of “Nyota”.
Year 50 Day 335
Day 335: I always take the Monday after con off so that I can rest and recover. I got a full normal night’s sleep plus an extra couple hours after my wife left for work, unpacked my suitcase and did laundry, made some con website and social media updates, and processed and posted the audio from the Thursday night dance. A nice low-key day to transition from the con world back into my normal routines.
A Peek at Norwescon Through Apple Watch Data
Just for fun, here’s a little peek at going to (and being rather heavily involved in the production of) Norwescon as recorded by my Apple Watch.
For each graph, I’ve set it to display a month’s worth of data to make the variations nice and visible.
Overall Activity
My standard goal for a day is 400 calories burned through movement. Most days I at least get close, many I go slightly over. I more than doubled that goal for each of the four days of con.
My exercise goal is 30 minutes, which, admittedly, I haven’t been regularly reaching for quite some time (though that’s something I intend to work on now that the weather is improving again). Hit that easily all weekend without even trying, and more than doubled it on one day.
My stand goal of 12 hours is one I usually hit pretty easily, but though not as visible, there is an increase here as well.
Flights Climbed
I live in a three-story condo, so I do get a few flights of stairs climbed every day, and walking around the college campus where I work, which is on a hill and where I do intentionally take stairs fairly often, helps. But at Norwescon, I get a room on the third floor of the tower, and as the elevators are often quite busy and I’m still fairly able-bodied, it’s usually faster and easier to take the stairs. Looks like I hit about 37 flights climbed on Friday this year!
Sleep
Most of the time, my wife and I are on a pretty set schedule. Since we both work a pretty regular 8-5 schedule, we get up between 4:30 and 5 a.m., go to bed at 8 p.m., and turn out the lights at 9 p.m. (I joke sometimes at how disappointed 20-something me would be at 50-year-old me…but 20-something me was working swing shifts during the week and DJing dance clubs on the weekend, so it’s not really a fair comparison). At con, though? Somewhere between 2 and 3 a.m. to bed, and though my body tried to keep my 5 a.m. schedule in the mornings, I’d stubbornly doze as long as I could. Most days I hit my goal of a minimum of 5 hours of sleep, supplemented by one or two naps during the day (without which I would not be able to function).
Steps
I’m not particularly sedentary (most days), usually getting around 5,000 steps per day. Could certainly be more, but it’s okay. And then suddenly I’m getting a minimum of more than 10,000 steps, peaking at somewhere above 17,000 steps (and that was on Wednesday, as I was packing, arriving, moving in, and then helping with setup). Norwescon weekend is a pretty constant “go” weekend, and I’m always on the move.
So there’s a bit of a data-driven look at the past four days. I’m definitely ready to rest now, but I’m also looking forward to doing it all over again next year. :)
Year 50 Day 334
Day 334: Norwescon day four is done! A fair chunk of the day was taken up by either packing or end-of-con web duties (awards posts, site updates for when the con is over, etc.), but there was also enough time for chats, goodbyes, and hugs from friends (and plenty of compliments on the Easter-themed shirt that my wife found for me). Another good year in the books! Next year, Norwescon 47…and Seattle Worldcon 2025!