dangermouse.net – David Morgan-Mar

Neighbours moving in

Friday I did the usual: Pick up groceries in the morning, teaching a bunch of critical thinking/ethics classes online, then Friday evening board games night. It was a fairly small grocery shop this week, after last week’s big one. I ordered online, except for fresh fruit and vegetables, as I normally do, and selected those myself before picking up the order. For some reason the supermarket included a dozen eggs in my order, even though I didn’t order any. Well, given the scarcity and price of eggs these days I’m not going to complain about getting a dozen free. So for dinner I decided to make quiche and use up most of the previous dozen.

Games night was meant to be in person this fortnight, but one guy was away skiing and two others recused themselves due to sniffles and not wanting to spread potential cold or flu viruses. With very small numbers for in-person, we converted it to online, and ended up with five participants, including the guy who was down at the snow, so that worked out pretty well.

We played Marrakech to start, then a long game of Castles of Burgundy. I didn’t win either. Then we moved to Just One, which is really optimal at 5 players. We got off to a bad start, missing the first two words, but recovered to score a mediocre 11 from 15.

Today I slept in a bit, still catching up on sleep after getting over the jetlag. I think I’m good now though. Scully had her annual checkup and vaccinations today, and my wife took her in to the vet for those. I went for a 5k run. The weather was cooler today and I ran my best time since getting back from Europe. I’m also getting back into the groove there after three weeks break.

And our new neighbours moved in today. We didn’t see much of them, but heard the movers bringing in furniture. Presumably we’ll bump into them in the next few days and have a proper introduction.

This afternoon I did a task I needed to get done for Standards Australia. We decided to revise our document outlining the case for international participation in the standardisation of photography technology, and I get to go over and update the text. I rewrote parts to reflect various changes in applications of photographic technology over the past 5 years or so since we last did this. I had to look up Government policy on things like self-driving cars to update statements about them and the role of cameras in safety monitoring. At the last update, the text said that officially released policy was that self-driving cars would be on Australian roads by 2026, but the latest update now says between 2026 and 2031. So it seems they’re pushing the date out as they realise the technology isn’t mature enough yet.

Tonight for dinner we took a long walk to the pizza place at Naremburn. We tried to get a table at our favourite pizza place, but they had a large booking in the outdoor section, so we couldn’t get in. So we decided to go further to this other one. It’s a bit more old school – they only have the traditional sort of pizza toppings that places had 30 or 40 years ago, and none of the new “gourmet” variations that many pizza places have now with ingredients like satay chicken or figs and gorgonzola.

Back into routine, I think

Today was fairly unremarkable. I slept okay and got up at a normal time, so I think I’ve finally conquered the jetlag.

I did ethics classes. Following yesterday’s comment, I switched my “believable” prediction from an eclipse to a sunrise, but still some of the kids expressed doubts that such a thing could reasonably be predicted. I’m at a bit of a loss for coming up with something that I can ask the kids “is this a reasonable prediction” and just have them say yes.

I took Scully on a long walk, down to the harbour shore. On the way I got a sweet treat from the new cafe, which I think is now better than the old Grumpy Baker. They had a hazelnut slice which I got and it was delicious: a thick biscuit base, with a kind of hazelnut cream on top, topped by a thin layer of chocolate with crunchy hazelnut pieces in it.

I spent time this afternoon writing and rewriting a new Darths & Droids strip. I had a complete version before realising something which made me have to scrap the entire thing and start from scratch. That’s how it goes sometimes. And the scrapped version I thought was really good, but alas unusable. I might save it for later behind-the-scenes bonus material.

Two steps forward

I think I’ve broken the jetlag, finally. I had a good sleep last night, and slept in a bit in the morning, which has allowed me to catch up a bit and not feel so tired.

I did a 5k run to keep up with exercise. And after lunch went to pick up Scully from my wife’s work and walk her home. My morning went pretty quickly. I made cauliflower and pumpkin soup for dinner – something that can keep hot on the stove for my wife when she gets home (while I’m in the middle of my evening Zoom classes), and then I can eat after I’ve finished.

One problem I’ve discovered with my current critical thinking topic on Predictions is that I wrote a question about astronomers predicting an eclipse, asking the kids if this sort of prediction could be believed. I expected them to say yes, and then I could follow-up with: Why is it believable? But… so far most of the kids have said that you probably can’t believe a prediction of an eclipse by scientists.

I’m wondering what’s going on. One of my friends suggested that they aren’t old enough to know or understand the steps that go into predicting an eclipse, and have a learnt skepticism for most things as a side effect of their other education (as most of these kids are pretty smart for their age). I may have to replace the question with something more believable. Like astronomers predicting what time the sun will rise tomorrow.

In other news, I kind of want to watch KPop Demon Hunters now, after one of the kids talked about it.

One step back

My recovery from jetlag took a slight backwards step after the previous night’s good sleep. I did sleep more than I have been for the past week, but woke up a few times and tossed and turned a bit, but did eventually drift back off. But I felt much better during the day today; I didn’t get a strong tired spell mid-afternoon. So hopefully things are rejigging into place.

I worked on my new week’s ethics lesson plan. This week we’re going to discuss predictions, ranging from fortune tellers, to weather forecasts, to eclipses. Thinking about how reliable different sorts of predictions are and why, and how you can tell the difference. And the importance of predictions in everyday life, for example: Will that car hit me if I cross the road now? Where is the ball going and where should I run to kick it? How long is my homework going to take to finish? What is my chess opponent going to do? Should I take an umbrella today?

In other teaching news, I got contacted by CSIRO about hooking up with a new partner school for their STEM Professionals in Schools programme. The teacher at the school I visited a few times last year lost contact and apparently left the programme, so I was waiting for them to find me another nearby school to go to. They’ve partnered me up with Wenona, a girls’ high school not far from home, a little closer than Loreto actually. I’ve reached out to the contact teacher there by email, and hopefully will get a response soon and set up a meeting.

Scully and I went on a couple of walks. Returning from the second one, we bumped int our new neighbours in the hallway. They’ve had workers in today installing new timber flooring. They asked me about the locations of the gas meters, since they have a natural gas company rep coming tomorrow to read the meters prior to initiating a new account for them. And they said the renovation work should be completed by Friday, and they are moving in on Saturday. It’s a youngish couple, maybe late 20s or early 30s. They also said hi to Scully, though they weren’t super enthusiastic dog-lover racing over to skritch her. Though it might have been the fact they were both holding large boxes of renovation material.

For dinner I made cauliflower steaks, which are all the rage in vegetarian circles at the moment. Simple sliced a cauliflower into thick slabs, roasted it in olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper until it was going crispy, and served it with a tahini and lemon sauce and a side salad. Very delicious.

Better sleep, busy day

Last night I got a much better sleep, finally, after my Europe trip. I woke up a couple of times, but instead of lying there unable to sleep, I fell back to sleep. And I was still snoozing when my wife woke me up just 20 minutes before my first ethics class of the day at 08:00!

I had to quickly gulp down a small serve of muesli for breakfast and get set up for the class. I had two in a row, after which I finished the second half of my breakfast at 10:00. Then two more classes.

After those I walked Scully up to my wife’s work, and did a 5k run to get home. I varied my route slightly from last Monday when I did the same thing, because while running a deliberately longer way around a building I encountered stairs, and I really don’t want to run down stairs, so I made sure to avoid that this week. It meant doing a couple of laps of the park near my place before finishing to get the distance up to 5k, but that was okay.

Tonight I finished the last two Monday evening classes for several weeks. I am moving them, one to Sunday and one to Tuesday, because from next week I will be tutoring the university image processing course at UTS again. The timeslot changes every year and this year they’ve scheduled it for 6-9pm on Mondays. So I’ll need to drop Scully at my wife’s work and head into the city on the train, and have a quick dinner in there somewhere before the lecture starts.

The iron grip of jetlag

The ongoing jetlag just won’t let go. I went to bed about 10:30 last night. I was very tired and fell asleep quickly. I woke up, after having several dreams, and felt like I had slept a good long time and it must be about 06:00 and time to get up soon.

It was 02:30. And I was awake and couldn’t get back to sleep. I turned a light on (dimly) and read for about half an hour to see if I could get tired and sleepy again, but it didn’t work very well. I went back to bed and mostly laid there awake counting the hours until dawn. It’s been pretty much like this every night since I got back from Europe some ten days ago now. Meanwhile during the day I am tired and my brain is foggy, making it difficult to concentrate on much. I’m hoping at some point my body will just flip into the correct time zone and sleep through the night properly.

I’ve been getting some exercise to try and help convince my body that it’s daytime during the day. I took Scully on a couple of walks (with my wife). We did a long one down past the harbour and she suggested taking our sketchbooks. So here’s my sketch of Oyster Cove and the HMAS Waterhen naval base:

Tonight I had three more ethics classes. The topic on Junk Food is a really good one, and there is some very interesting discussion by the kids on the ethical question of whether it’s okay or not that companies make profits by manufacturing food that is unhealthy for us. And what, if anything, can be done about this state of affairs, and whether any solutions would be better or worse than the status quo.

Games milestones and sketching back home

Friday was busy with ethics classes. I added a new class to Friday at 11:00, so I had even less time in between than previously. I did pick up groceries in the morning before my first class though.

In the evening was online board games night. There were only three of us participating this time (normally we can have 4–6). We played Jump Drive, Knarr, Splendor, Luxor, Cat in the Box, and Nova Luna, all on Board Game Arena. I won the game of Splendor, which is unusual—I’m normally very bad at this game. But I was surprised when Board Game Arena popped up a triumphant dialogue informing me that it was my first win ever at Splendor. I didn’t realise I’d been that bad at it!

And then later when I won another game—I forget exactly which game it was after—BGA informed me that I’d just won my 50th all-time game on the platform. Which I also found a little surprising, given how much we use BGA and how many games I’ve played overall. Honestly if you’d asked me how many games of just Jump Drive I thought I’d won, I would have estimated about 50. Clearly my estimations of my own competence are too high!

Today was a combination of trying to be lazy and staying at home, and actually going out for long walks with my wife and Scully. Before lunch we walked out to the kitchen shop because I wanted to buy a steel steamer tray for our pots, not necessarily to steam anything, but rather to use as a spätzle maker. I’ve been inspired by our trip to Europe to make spätzle at home, and I needed something with holes in it to push the dough through into the boiling water. I found a steamer with multiple stepped sizes on the bottom that could fit either our smaller or larger cooking pot. I also bought a silicone bowl scraper to use to push the dough through.

This afternoon we went on another walk, over to the Flat Rock Brew Cafe, where we sat and both did some sketching. I had a beer while doing mine, and my wife got a coffee. Here’s the outdoor seating area where we sat:

For this one I used the new coloured brush pens that I bought in Vienna, for the first time. So it’s a bit of an experiment. I wanted to colour the faces of the people, but the pens are too dark and I realised I should have left them blank instead. Oh well, live and learn!

And here’s the front of the establishment:

Tonight I used the new steamer to make spätzle, and we had it with vegetarian sausages, fried mushrooms, and sauerkraut. A real central European dish! And the spätzle turned out really well, so I’m very pleased with my purchase.

Persistent jetlag

It’s taking forever to shake off this jetlag from my Europe trip. Last night I went to bed about 10pm. I slept and later woke up and felt like it must be around 6am. I thought I’d just lie in until the alarm went off for my wife to get ready for work. But I tossed and turned for about two hours, unable to go back to sleep, and no alarm. So I risked a glance at the clock (normally I avoid looking at the clock during the night when trying to fall asleep again)… and it read 3:45. And I was now wide awake.

I got up and went to the living room and read a book for about an hour, to see if that would make me feel sleepy. Then went back to bed and tried to fall asleep, without much luck. At 6am I gave up and just got up and had breakfast and started my day.

For some reason this was worse than the night before, when I slept longer. I felt after that I’d have a good chance of sleeping through the night and essentially being over the jetlag. But now it feels almost like I’m back at square one. I suspect it might have been caused by the nap in had in the morning yesterday.

So today I just toughed it out, staying up and active, despite hitting a tiredness cliff in the early afternoon. Hopefully I’ll sleep longer tonight. It’s weird. I can adjust to jetlag quickly when going somewhere – I had essentially no problems at all in Europe after arriving there. But coming home is always much tougher.

Anyway, I didn’t do much today beyond teaching my Outschool ethics classes, and making a new Darths & Droids strip. So not much else to say.

Catching up on sleep?

I’m still suffering from the jet lag issue of waking up way too early and not being able to go back to sleep. I was awake from about 5am this morning and even though very tired I just couldn’t nod off again. I finally got up at 06:00 and had my breakfast.

But then around 08:00 when my wife left for work, I felt really tired and decided to go back to bed and see if I could sleep some more. I ended up getting up again after 11:00, although I felt like I was mostly dropping in and out of a light doze rather than getting a deep sleep. But it seemed to help since I didn’t feel as awfully tried this afternoon as yesterday. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a better sleep tonight and not wake up so early again.

Still, I took it easy today. I had to go pick up Scully from my wife’s work at lunch time, and we walked home together slowly. I watched some videos and cooked some vegetable soup for dinner, and had three ethics classes in the evening. I had a kid show off Labubus during one of the classes—I’d only learnt what they are two days ago!

European sketches scanned

Today I worked on my new ethics class for the new week, on the topic of Junk Food. I have some interesting questions to get the kids to think about what junk food is, such as whether a single small piece of chocolate counts as junk food, or only if you have a lot of it. How much junk food is okay to eat and how much is too much? Why do companies sell food they know is unhealthy, and should there be rules or laws to restrict junk food sales or advertising? Who should be responsible for getting people to eat healthily?

I also worked on a new Darths & Droids strip. I need to get ahead and build up a buffer again, after exhausting the one I’d built up for my trip.

And I completed touching up the scans I did of all my sketches from Europe. I filled my book of 60 pages, so there are quite a few. Here are some that I like:

Bonvivant Cocktail Bistro in Berlin, where we had that marvellous vegetarian 5-course meal:

The Astronomical Clock Tower and Old Town Square in Prague:

The Graben square in Vienna:

Buda Castle, in Budapest:

The steps we had to climb to reach Bratislava Castle, in Bratislava:

The view over Salzburg from Salzburg Castle:

And the Karsltor gate in Munich:

If you want to see all 60 sketches, I’ve put them in this album on Flickr.

This evening I did my first class on the Junk Food topic, which went okay. I had a scratchy throat at the beginning and for a while I thought I might have to stop the class because I couldn’t talk any more, but it seemed to get better as I went on. I’ve been sneezing a lot and having a stuffy nose the past few days, which I’m not sure if it’s a cold or just being run down from the jet lag and lack of sleep. Hopefully I’ll sleep better tonight and recover quickly.

After the class I made a couscous salad with beetroot, cucumber, feta, and walnuts for dinner. Very quick and easy, after I chopped and boiled the beetroot earlier in the afternoon.