Drawing without reference can take you only so far. I guess I use it from now on, yet without wholesale copying.

Oh my! Is it December already? How time flies when you’re being lazy.

I’m amazed how adaptable the human body is, now I’m dealing with yet another injury. The cause of those injuries is mostly overweight and over-ambition. If I had a coach experienced with older runners, he’d probably told me to act more responsibly and put myself on a diet.

It suddenly appeared to me while watching Adventure Time on Netflix (S01E18, “Dungeon”), where Demon Cat has “approximate knowledge of many things.” It’s how I would describe chatGPT.

Someone dug a trench across a footpath, and I stepped right into it, hurting my ankle badly. Who does such a thing, making a trap for pedestrians? The ankle is swollen and hurts, but not enough to go to a doctor. I suppose R.I.C.E. will reduce the swelling, as in Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.

If everything goes as planned, I will have run around 3300 km (2050 mi) in 2023 when the New Year rolls around. With a little over 5 weeks to go, I’ve already passed 2930 km of running this year, an average of 63 km (39 mi) weekly, 272 km (169 mi) monthly, despite injuries and other mishaps. 🏃‍♂️

I did my civic duty by voting in the Dutch general election today, November 22, 2023.

I suppose Apple Inc. deems iOS 17.1.1 stable enough to be installed by the general user, so I did. No immediate surprises, so that’s good.

After reading this opinion piece by @ploum@mamot.fr I’m convinced communities are all relatively small, niche, and valuable. The means to strengthen them are irrelevant, ephemeral even. Instead of herding communities into a single walled garden, they should be enabled to fend for themselves.

After doing some research to find out which marathons can be reached in time by public transport, and finding out I already knew those, I’m going for a recovery run, to clear my mind from the realization that a car is still needed for early hours on Sundays, (or late hours in Summer). I’m carless.

On Caturday we share our favorite spots to elicit an aww from the resident hooman.

Listening to wise words by Adam Savage on YouTube, I realized everyone has to juggle with resources (money, time, attention), and find some balance between what you want and what you need in what you do during the day, a balance between responsibility and selfishness. Often it’s 😑 sometimes it’s 😆

Article 45 Will Roll Back Web Security by 12 Years | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Today the fate of the Internet will be decided behind closed doors. If the bill passes unchanged, the lower browser security will make people lose trust in online transactions, not just in Europe, but world-wide.

I need to remind myself that me running competitively is just a mind trick to keep fit. I’m under no illusion that I’m able to win a race, not even in my age class. Keeping fit is already struggle enough. No need for being a target for those after “eternal” fame (i.e. until the next race).

I’ve gone through four vaccinations in two weeks, 3 for me, and one for my cat Maahir. We should be protected somewhat from contagious diseases well before Christmas rolls around. It’s a bother, but luckily mostly free, since it was all locally. 💉

I sat down to relax and it seemed an opportunity for my two Bengal cats to snuggle together next to me. I hadn’t even noticed. The summer is definitely over now.

I found a tutorial on drawing hands and wondered how it would help me to improve. Hence this naive drawing of a hand from imagination without studying fundamentals beforehand.

Just drawing what one sees won’t improve one’s skills, that’s for sure. Some deeper knowledge is needed.

While I don’t smoke nor drink, this reply on a great post by @jean on quitting alcohol has made it clear to me that anything addicting is bad for you, and should be done with restraint. I should only buy what I need, not what I lust for. What remains for me is junk-food; I really don’t need it.

It appears November 1 is self-portrait day. Drawn at 160 by 160 pixels in ibisPaint X.

It’s Trick or Treat day. Gools, goblins, ghosts, and other ghastly creatures abound.