Noisy Deadlines

Blaugust

  • 🍂 I can sense the change of seasons with days now around 20°C, shorter daylight hours, and darker mornings. Fall is approaching, and it’s my favorite season! I avoid hiking in the summer due to bugs, so I always wait for Fall to begin my hiking adventures.
  • ⛸ I enrolled for Fall Ice Skating classes!
  • 🍎 I'm still doing my food diary. I've got one more week to go before my next appointment with the registered dietitian.
  • 📚 I've been reading a lot! I've been spending less of my free time on the computer or on my phone and that means more reading. Sometimes I don't even turn on my personal laptop over the weekends. I'm just preferring more offline time when I’m not working.
  • 📖 I just started reading the next pick for my Book Club: Surface Detail (Culture #9) by Iain M. Banks. I'm not at all familiar with this series, so I had to do some research just to understand the world building a bit. The series can be read in any order, but since I've never read any of those books, I was a bit lost after I read the first 3 chapters of Surface Detail. But now I understand a little bit more of the universe, so I'll keep on reading.
  • I'm feeling overwhelmed by my RSS feeds. I’m subscribing to 70 feeds right now, and I feel it’s too much. I need to do a cleanup soon.
  • I didn’t play Stardew Valley this week.

Currently reading

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Post 34/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge (Round 2)!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #weeknotes #Blaugust2024 #Blaugust

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

I’ve been registering all my meals and symptoms in a small notebook (10 cm x 14 cm) since Friday. Yes, in a paper notebook, small enough for me to carry around with my Kobo. I leave the pen attached to the notebook’s spiral so it’s easy for me to take notes of symptoms any time of the day. Sometimes it’s only after a couple of hours that I will feel something.

A friend asked me why I am not using an app for my Food Diary. This is what I responded:

  • I’m only doing this for a couple of weeks, so I wanted the simplest and easiest way to take notes. Nothing beats paper. (I will probably transfer the notes to an Excel spreadsheet later because… Excel nerd here).
  • I hate typing/writing on a mobile device. See above.
  • Apps will ask me to create an account and then they will bother me offering a premium subscription. No, thanks.
  • Also, there might be ads in the app itself. Nope.

My Food Diary with my Kobo (yes, they match colors!)

After starting this Food Diary I’ve been able to notice nuances to my symptoms. I’m paying more attention to what I’m eating. And I noticed that I was ignoring some of my symptoms because I just got used to them.

The Food Diary was a task given to me by my Registered Dietitian, but I’m also seeing a Naturopath for other related health things. I saw my Naturopath today and she’s super interested in my Food Diary because it will help her to figure some of my other problems as well.

I don’t want to get into too much detail about my health issues, but I needed to address some hormonal alterations that started showing up 2 years ago. I was seeing medical doctors all this time and none of them were worried about my blood test results. I’ve been living with some hormonal imbalances that I really wanted to investigate, but doctors always dismissed my concerns and symptoms.

And that’s why I decided to see a Naturopath again. I used to see one back in Brazil years and years ago and they can help when “conventional” medicine isn’t working well or as complement to it. At least there is somebody really listening to me and investigating the root cause of my imbalances. And taking a broader view by connecting the dots between my diet, the medication I’ve been taking for years, my symptoms, my gut health.

I was really weak the past few years with my anemia getting worse, and the doctors just telling me to “eat more meat” and “greens” even though my body wasn’t (and still isn’t) able to absorb iron properly. It took me 2 years to finally get a referral to see a Hematologist and get an IV iron injection to replenish my ferritin levels.

I feel much better now after getting the IV iron, but I’ve endured so many years in a weakened state that I don’t even know if now I’ve reached my normal energy levels. Based on what’s going on with my hormones and digestion system, my Naturopath thinks I’m still not at a 100%. I got some work to do, but I will get there!

The start of the journey is always awareness!

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Post 33/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge (Round 2)!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #Blaugust2024 #Blaugust #health #journal

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

  • 🍎 I had my first appointment with a Registered Dietitian this week. It's been at least 7 years since I've last seen one and I feel I need better guidance on my diet now. I've been having more GERD symptoms lately, and I also noticed I've been mindlessly snacking all the time, and I gained some weight. I am basically doing a food diary for 2 weeks, registering all my meals and symptoms so that the dietitian can build a meal plan for me.

  • 🧀 Some diet notes: I think my lactose intolerance is becoming more severe. It has not been too intense in the past couple of years, so I still could eat cheese in moderation. But now... I'm already sad I will have to (probably) say goodbye to cheese 😢.

  • ✏️ I joined #Blaugust2024!

  • 📒 I've been using my Rocketbook Fusion for 4 months now for all my work notes. One thing I noticed is that I go through a LOT of ink! I've been buying the pens refills, and they go out fast! The process of scanning the pages with the app is great. Now, wiping off the pages with water and cloth every week... not so much. I haven't decided anything yet, but I think I've been putting off cleaning the pages because it's a lot of work. Food for thought.

  • 📖 I'm glad I finished reading the book for my next Book Club meet-up this weekend (I thought I wouldn't be able to make it). It's called “The City of Brass” by S.A. Chakraborty. It's not a bad book, it's well written, great world building, but I wouldn't give it 5 stars. It was meh. I'm still processing the reasons why I didn't enjoy it that much.

  • 🎧I've been listening to a few podcasts dedicated to the romance genre. I got some recommendations, and I tried a few books that really weren't my thing. Romance is such a vast genre, with hundreds of sub-genres, so I'm still learning about my reading preferences. The good thing is there is a book for every taste/trope/theme/setting. I will try some new authors in the next few months.

  • 🚩I deleted my blog's “Now Page”.

Cool Online Reads:

I enjoyed these articles discussing social media. I identify with the issues. I have a Mastodon account, which I don't really check that often.

About making reading fun (and reading more!):

And the benefits of therapy:

I loved this writing setup. I noticed we use the same mouse!

Romance Novels Podcasts I've been exploring:

Games I'm playing: Stardew Valley

  • I'm halfway into my first Fall season. I love the colors!
  • I got enough money and resources to expand my house and have a kitchen! (under construction)
  • I got a second chicken coop (to prepare for winter).
  • I found and retrieved Mayor Lewis Shorts.

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Post 32/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge (Round 2)!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #weeknotes #Blaugust2024 #Blaugust

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

The “Now” page is an idea from Derek Sivers that started a movement around 2015. I thought it was cool, but in reality, I was never good at keeping it up to date. I mean, sometimes I'd rather just write a post about what is going on in my life. Also, the “now” aspect of it reminds me of social media. It gives an urgency to communicate what is going on “right now” and I prefer sharing things more intentionally. And to be honest, that's probably not the sense that Derek Sivers originally had for the “Now” page, but I just perceive it that way unconsciously.

On the other hand, I really enjoy writing the “Week Notes”! I first saw this idea on a few blogs that were participating in the 100 Days To Offload last year (2023).

Sometimes I totally forget that I have a “Now” page, so it's not updated as frequently. The “Week Notes” are a better way of registering what I'm up to. It's a nice chunk of time to look back to and reflect upon and I like the regularity of it. When I'm doing my end of the month review it's amazing to look at my Week Notes and see a summary of what happened in my life, the good things, and the bad things.

So, I'm deleting my “Now” page today. I think I will move some of the info that is there to my “About” page: things like my routines and podcasts I'm listening to because those are pretty consistent.

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Post 31/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge (Round 2)! and Blaugust2024!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #Blaugust2024 #Blaugust #NoisyMusings

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

So, I decided to join the Blaugust 2024! It's my first time. I love that there are weekly themes and prompts ideas to write. I've already discovered some cool participating blogs!

I will introduce myself this week, then.

Hi, my name is Ariadne. I'm a woman in my mid 40's and I have been writing this blog since 2012 or so. I've kept the same name since the beginning, when I started it in Tumblr, then quickly moved to Wordpress. By 2018 I moved to write.as and never looked back.

I have a background in Civil Engineering focused on buildings, but I really wanted to be a Computer Scientist. I've always loved computers! I started playing with them in the late 80's in a TK-85 with cassette tapes. I still work with computers and spreadsheets all day.

I work as a construction estimator for a big general contractor. I was born in Brazil, and I've been in Canada for 7 years. I've been together with my partner for almost 2 decades now (gosh, has it been that long?). He's my life love and best friend 😍. We've been through a lot together (including leaving everything behind and moving to a new country!).

📚 I love reading and I try to spend most of my downtime with books (in my case, e-books on my Kobo). Reading calms my mind and lets me explore different worlds and possibilities. I was mostly into sci-fi and fantasy for a long while, then some mystery, but now I'm branching out to cozier/fluffy reads with romance as well.

I'm an introvert. I need quiet time every day (and reading is perfect for that!). I hate crowds and noisy places. But I love rock and heavy metal.

I've developed several managing/coping skills for my anxiety and stress. I do yoga, I meditate, I journal, I blog, I exercise. I prioritize my sleep no matter what. I have dietary restrictions to manage acid reflux, so I don't eat out a lot. I cook 99% of my meals from scratch. I don't drink coffee or carbonated drinks. I don't drink alcohol. I avoid any type of spicy food, onions, pickles, citric foods, lactose.

I focus a lot on my wellbeing these days. Since my early 20's I had chronic low back pain, and it took me years to find out ways to manage it and be mostly pain free (exercise was the most important one). Everything I do today for my health is to avoid having that pain again. It was not fun because it was debilitating (really, sometimes I couldn’t walk!). I'm okay now, but I must keep up with my routines to keep it that way.

I'm also organized and a minimalist: I hate clutter, and I try to be very intentional with my belongings. I think a lot about organization and productivity: I love the GTD methodology and it has helped me so much!

🎮 I used to play a lot of video games (I grew up as PC gamer; I love a keyboard!). My all-time favorite games/series are Mass Effect, The Witcher, Assassin's Creed, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age, Temple of Elemental Evil, SimCity, Age of Empires, Starcraft, to name a few.

Nowadays I'm playing cozy games like Stardew Valley and Dorfromantik.

So, that's it!

I probably won't be writing every day for the Blaugust, I don't want to put that much pressure on me, but I'm really enjoying the flexibility and sense of community with this initiative 👋.

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Post 30/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge (Round 2)! and Blaugust2024!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #Blaugust2024 #Blaugust #introduction

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

  • 🏡 I took 2 days off this week right before a long weekend so I had an extra long weekend! I used that time to just relax at home. Lots of drinking tea and reading. Some light walks here and there. I also stayed away from my computer for the most part. My focus was only reading for a couple of days and it was relaxing.
  • ✍ Because I was mostly disconnected for the past few days, my RSS feed is full of unread articles right now. And I just noticed that Blaugust 2024 is on and that seems fun! So I'm thinking of joining on this second week.
  • 📚 I don't usually re-read books, but I decided to re-read a romance novel I read 9 years ago. I saw it being discussed in a podcast, and there are some interesting elements about it that I completely forgot and probably didn't pay attention to the first time I read it. So I did finish it, and I really enjoyed it!
  • 💪 I went to the gym instead of running outside this week because it was too hot. Another heat wave came in.

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Post 29/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge (Round 2)!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #weeknotes #Blaugust2024 #Blaugust

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

💾For a complete summary list of my blog posts grouped by year, click here.

🎈 Things I write about :

Sections:

🎨 #NoisyMusings: a little bit of everything 📂 #Productivity: organization, methods, apps, GTD 📚 #Books: everything book related

Some Topics:

#apps | #Nirvana (the app, not the band) | #Todoist | #GTD | #MSTodo | #notes | #journal | #journaling | #BookReview | #ReadingList | #Reading | #ReaderGoals | #BookWyrm | #TheStorygraph | #weeknotes | #podcast | #GTDnotes | #100DaysToOffload | #projects | #goals | #DnD

#internet | #socialmedia | #attentionresistance #minimalism | #digitalminimalism #outdoors | #Hiking | #winter | #iceskating |#skiing |#music | #heavymetal | #puzzle | #health | #tech | #linux | #blogging | #Blaugust