Weekly Notes 09/2026

It’s been a weird week, weather-wise. We’re slowly transitioning away from summer. This means that sunrise times been getting more and more delayed. Back when we were in the apartment, it didn’t matter so much - we’d be sleeping in till like 07:30 in the morning. Now that we’re out here, we’re up by 06:15 so that we can be out and take the 07:15 bus. Both Jo & I noticed it was a bit darker when we woke up than the past couple of weeks. And that our motion-sensing auto nightlights lit up when I walk out to the hall certainly makes it even more obvious.

The week started with swimming classes - I'm getting more and more comfortable being in water. My instructor got me to get a launch myself into the water by pushing myself away from the pool wall. I also managed (with support) to swim end-to-end, which I was pretty happy with. She also got me to try to float on my back. Again, with the float support I was able to do it - and it was supremely relaxing to just kick back! It's been a fun ride so far and I hope to get getter at it over the next few weeks.

The rest of the week went by pretty fast with no drama. I had my "final exam results" - it's performance review season at work and got me a chance to sit down, look back at all the things I've done in the past year and things that I can improve upon. The biggest change has been assuming scrum master responsibilities. We're an infra team, so our problem hasn't been a never-ending backlog - rather, a relatively empty backlog as we try to figure out our team identity and come up with the work we'd like to take on. As we've been focusing on cost efficiency the past year, the backlog has been pretty fluid, and makes my life as a scrum master a bit harder as lot of work are been speculative investigations. That said, it's been a good run and it's good to have a team and manager that supports and appreciates your work. It's always hard to get people to keep their tickets up-to-date, without annoying them too much, but at the end of the day - that's my job.

Our gym sessions have been going well. Despite our initial hesitations on whether we'd be able to stick to the schedule, it's been ok. We've settled into a routine - Tuesday/Wednesday evenings are gym evenings. With my weightloss having stalled at around 95kg, it's been kinda frustrating. But my trainer re-did my body fat measurements - first time since I signed up. My lean weight has remained at 74kg, but my body fat has reduced from 113 kg to 95 kg, with a body fat around 25%. My trainer congratulated me on my work and gave a reminder that body weight may have remained stagnant but that's a phase and as long as it doesn't go back up it should be fine. I'll try to get some steps in over the weekends, and with the swimming classes, hopefully it will get me down to my desired weight.

On Friday, Jo had a minor procedure. She's doing okay and hasn't stopped her from going to Ikea to pick up some curtain rods, or to op-shops thrifting some nice picture frames and an artwork. We also went to the nursery in Parklea markets and got a stake as support for the the rose plant (a branch of which has been falling on the floor) and a terracotta pot along with curry leaves plant.

Left to right: Irises (reprint from Van Gogh museum), thrifted artwork (unknown), curry tree in terracotta pot, stake for roses

What I've been playing

I've been taking a break from the ARPGs for the past week. Civilization VII is due for some big changes as well, but felt like getting a game in so I'm playing a game with Himiko as my leader, starting with the Khmer empire in the Antiquity age, then to Mahapahit in the Expansion age to the Siamese empire in the Modern age.

Playing through Civ VII

Music of the Week

Polar Inc's mixes have been part of my "relax" mix since the past few months and I have been very happy to play this whenever I need to turn my brain off. Here's Pastel from Polar Inc.

Pastel from Polar Inc

Links of the week

An interview from 2036 with Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Sam Altman. After the stock market crash of 2026 the economy faltered, 80% of people lost their job and the US tech elite had to find a new way to keep the world moving: Energym. This mockumentary fragment depicts a dystopian world 10 years from now

The Matrix, all over again.

Energym | aicandytech moguls interview from 2036https://www.aicandy.be/giorgio-1

Veritasium covers the xz backdoor saga including the full history of GNU & ssh and a nice explanation of how various compression algorithms work. Bit of a long watch but worth it.

Thanks for reading.

Thanks for reading and have a great week ahead.