Week of May 14th, 2025

Life #

I’ve spent the last three days in the homes of various extended family members. I enjoy their company, and the wealth of information they have on all topics, but I hate what it does to my parents. In a collective, group-think (and bigotry) seems to increase (from all parties). I’ve spent the last three days face to face with it in a way I have no desire to ever again. But we went chikoo-picking, and I drove several tens of kilometres on the highway. We got caught in a terrible downpour in the middle of nowhere where we stopped and ate some excellent nippat. I am having some very complex feelings around what this is means for my desire for a relationship with my family. A friend has given me several questions to think through and I’m not happy about it, but I’m looking forward to sorted this out for myself. #

I spent some time thinking about what I want from an IndieWebClub that Ankur and I have been wanting to start for a while. This week has been Never Graduate Week at underline.centre, and I’m writing this from the inaugural session of the club! It started out as a guided session on independent publishing and morphed into conversation (like all good sessions should). More on club stuff next week. #

Health #

Running this week was eye-opening! I did run 8.30 kilometres, I did not run a 5k, I did notice changes in breath and endurance, I did not manage to do any mid-foot striking. I was in a time-crunch, and needed to leave after 25ish minutes so I couldn’t exactly see what “until failure” would look like, but I think this is the first time I ran for 27 minutes straight without a walking break. #

As an aside, my Fitbit charge 4 and the strava app on my phone consistently showed me quite different times and paces, which was very annoying. I’m inclined to trust my phone more, because the watch has also been giving me some pretty inaccurate numbers on my sleep tracking. I should probably get the ultrahuman ring (I’m too poor for an ouro or garmin). Aah, yet another thing I need to buy. Le sigh. #

I’m so proud that despite the chaos of the week I’ve still been keeping up with exercises. My body complained lots for the day I missed because out of town so I even did a small routine by myself in my grandma’s home. #

I took a nap for about 90 minutes some time between noon to 4pm on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I am not happy with this development. I was underslept and groggy from exercise, but I’d really like to avoid allowing my body to crash. I have also been a fair bit social lately and maybe I need to sacrifice that in order to sleep better? Every time that productivity matrix rears its head I am annoyed but not surprised. #

Learning #

It’s been challenging keeping up with the mandarin but I have been doing it. The grammar, however? Needs work. #

Media Diet #

Reading #

I haven’t done much reading this week. I’ve finally fallen off the Dramione bandwagon (I’ve read everything there is to read) and Light From Uncommon Stars has a slow middle. #

Listening #

Have I shilled Faris Shafi’s Introduction before? It continues to bring me life - there’s nothing like a reminder of Alfredo Fettuccine when you’ve spent 5 hours listening to bigots spout off. #
I’ve been enjoying Pink Panthress’s new album. It veers off into more electronic territory than her last, but it is a gentle introduction and one I am all too happy to dance to. #

Around the web #

My friend Natasha has yet another haunting post on the melancholy of unfulfilled friendship feelings. #
Someone on Queer Reads Bangalore was talking about Agha Shahid Ali and I couldn’t help but revisit this wonderful eulogy Amitav Ghosh wrote for him that was (surprisingly) in our 11th standard textbooks before (unsurprisingly) being removed from the syllabus last year. #