Monthly #10

October was a month of getting back into the regular swing of things after a very disrupted by rewarding Summer.

🏉 Japan Nationals. The month ended with a trip to Japan to referee at their Elite Nationals tournament. It was my first time blowing the whistle in anger for a long time. It was good to get the legs going again, especially after a few months of inactivity post-World Cup.

The trip to Japan also gave me a chance to get my old Olympus Pen EE-3 serviced. It turns out that the light sensor in the camera is started to get faulty, and so the time might soon come when I'll need to set it aside.

📷 Film. Earlier in the month, I played around with 11ty for yet another website project. This time it was a small gallery website to serve as a house for the photos I've captured on the Olympus Pen EE-3. It was a nice little weekend project, and hopefully as a I get deeper into film photography the site can expand.

🚲 Back on the bike. Before leaving for India in September, I left my bike at a local Giant bike shop to be serviced. I picked it up after we go back, and then took advantage of a few clear days between typhoons to get in a couple of rides. On one ride, I made it all the way out to the north eastern city of Keelung - about 40km away from Taipei, making it an 80km round trip. It was good to get out there & realise I could make the ride in a morning and be back in Taipei by lunch.

These are things I set out to do more or less of in 2024. I'm not big on habit tracking, so this "tracking" report is all just vibes.

• Going to the gym regularly: 😐 Nah, no motivation post World Cup.
• Doing 20k+ bike rides each week: Yep ✅.
• Writing monthly reviews: Yep ⭐, you're reading it now.
• Taking the cat outside the apartment: Nope ❎.
• Capturing thoughts in a notebook: 😐 Picked up a Hobonichi diary in Japan for 2025.

• Sugary snacks: Yep ⭐. I feel that the trip to India helped with this. Now the hard part will be keeping up the discipline back in Taiwan.
• Using my phone in bed: Nope ❎. But I've got my eye on the Boox Palma 2, a "dumb phone" e-reader device that I hope can become my regular reading device.

• Taking regular breaks/vacations with Kay: 😀 We're planning our next trips, but aiming to make them more manageable than the ones we've had this year.
• Getting nerd-sniped by work stuff: Yes 😀. I still want to make a carbon tracking page for my website. Also had a few other ideas during the India trip.
• Following other folks on RSS: Nope ❎. Waaaay behind now. Still gotta clean up my current feed.
• Building a financial safety-net: Yes, started to invest a bit more.