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.

I suppose one needs a beefy laptop nowadays to view the web.

Hmm, a €115 Raspberry Pi-400 vs a €2029 M3 MacBook Pro, which both meet my very modest compute needs, what to pick? I suppose ad tech developers pick the latter, to push the industry “forward”. Tracking people in secret is hard work 😉

When inspiration seems to have vacated the premises of the brain, just draw, damnit, just draw! A need for the muse is for newbs, those who have never battled creative emptiness, out of fear or just mere mental illness. Succumbed to it many times, zapping energy and the will to live. Still here!

The Incomparable Mothership podcast had its (delayed) episode 666, The Exorcist, which was reason enough for me to turn my head 180 degrees, and riff on this number of the beast. It’s sixty-six past six, right? 🧟‍♂️

They seem to enjoy my breathing and beating heart on caturday, so close to my chest.

After dealing with a possible spammer (mute), I did another attempt on a fantasy animal, a cross between a cat and a dinosaur. Maybe it should’ve been a T-Rex, though 🦖