A brief update on how's life going
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I haven't phlogged much this year, which is a great shame, so let me
do just a brief update on how life's going on and to let everyone
know, that the bongusta-master is still alive.
I started the year for the very first time with a resolution. In 2018
I did a bit of jogging/running, nothing big. In 2010 I took it more
seriously, even attended two running races - 8km and 10km - and in
September finished non-racing half-marathon in 2h 15m. But all the
time my weight was between 88 and 92 kg, which simply is too much. So
I decided not just to lose some pounds, but to change my eating
habits. First two months I almost completely removed carbohydrates
from my diet and to my great surprise it was enough to lose around
17 kg. In the first weeks I also tried to replace meat with
vegan/vegetarian stuff but I lost my weight too quickly, so I learnt
to balance it.
My daily limit of carbs is 50 grams, I still eat no side dish
(potatoes, rice, pasta), no fruit and no bread. On the other hand even
a big steak with load of green beans is no problem every now and then.
When I have the urge for sweet (because sugar is drug and you never
quite escape it), I eat high-protein sticks which don't exceed 20 % of
sugar or chocolate with at least 85 % of cocoa. Since mid-March I'm
keeping my weight around 73.5 kg, with the trend downwards (when I do
something exhausting), not upwards. I had the same weight when I was
16, more than 20 years ago.
But I still haven't started with running this year, because with
spring also COVID-19 came. Our government behaved quite chaotic,
declaring poorly explained regulations, each member of cabinet often
saying different information, but somehow it worked. We have less than
300 dead in 10-million nation, original extrapolations suggested that
there will be more than 13000 cases of the disease at the end of
April, but we had less than 8000. We had to wear face masks in the
public since March, there were no face masks available to buy. So
people remembered the times of prospering socialism when every piece
of clothing was scarce, dusted off their sewing machines and started
to make masks for others for free or for the costs of material. Stores
except for those with food, medical material, material for sewing and
selected electronics were closed by a decree as well as restaurants,
cinemas, theaters etc. People were forbidden to leave home except for
going to work, to do necessary shopping and to visit parks or trips to
nature. Almost all companies that could do it, transferred people to
work from home, most of other simply closed and either left people
home on partial salary or sacked them. I was visiting my office daily
as with 5-year-old autie I wouldn't be able to do much from home, so
except for the fact that we had to spend all the free time at home or
in nearby park and I couldn't buy new running shoes, which I
desperately needed, the whole pandemic passed by with no direct
impact.
Not exactly much new on the computing front, just regular bunch of INs
and OUTs: I sold one of the three iMac G3 computers I had, one of two
Xeon based Xserves, several spare PCs and about a dozen of old cards
for ISA and PCI slots. All the money collected this way will be used
for buying Blackbird in the near future.
That was the "out” part, from the "in" perspective I would like to
mention a Sinclair ZX-81 with a RAMpak and AY+SD interface, which I've
got in exchange for an old Czechoslovak computer made by Zbrojovka
Brno (a state-owned armory, which made aside from guns of all types
also computers in the late 80's) and a 2009 Mac Mini, which I've got
for free (in fact two of them, I managed to combine them in one fully
working and one for spare parts).
In the mobile area of computing I have to mention, that I left Android
after two years and since February my cell phone is again just thing
used for making phone calls and messaging - Nokia 8110 4G. As a
companion I use various devices from my collection, usually without
SIM card or with data-only plan. At the moment this role is assigned
to iPhone 5s, before that it was Samsung Galaxy S3 with Project /e/
distribution of Android and even before that Xperia X with Sailfish
OS. As long as I'm satisfied with the KaiOS on Nokia for most of my
personal and work communication, I can keep changing the companion
device every month and fiddle with various operating systems and
platforms.
And that's about it. It wasn't as brief as I thought it would be, but
I can't guarantee another post soon, so this one has to last you for
a while...
(Typed on iPhone 5s in a very good albeit a bit sluggish markdown
capable editor called Type)
