weeknotes — Noisy Deadlines

Week Notes Aug 18 to Sep 07 2026

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 16:59:57 +0000

🤘️ The big event for me these past weeks was the Iron Maiden concert which I wrote about here. I also used the opportunity to go explore downtown Toronto on foot, which was something I've never done. And it's a busy city, on the weekend we were there, the Toronto BlueJays were playing at the Skydome and it was also FanExpo weekend. It was fun to see this mix of people with Iron Maiden t-shirts, Bluejays fans and all sorts of cosplays characters walking around town.
👣 The Toronto weekend also included: a visit to the CN Tower, Queen's Park, UoT campus, Victoria College, Philosopher's Walk, Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Toronto Railroad Museum and Royal Ontario Museum (just the main entrance, it was such a beautiful day and we didn't want to spend the day inside). Lots of walking!
📽️ I went to the movies to see “Spider-Man: Brand New Day”. The movie was great, although I wasn't expecting it to be so sad. I learned that definitely I don't like these “ScreenX” rooms, some notes here.
✒️ I completed Blaugust! Final thoughts here.
📼 I saw that the “Iron Maiden: The Early Years Documentary” is available on the band's official You Tube channel on. I watched this on VHS many, many years ago. But also, there is a new documentary released earlier this year called “IRON MAIDEN: BURNING AMBITION”. I haven't seen it yet, but I added it to my “to-watch” list.
🎲 My partner and I wanted to get a board game that was made for 2 players only, and people recommended “7 Wonders Duel”. We got it, plus the expansion “Pantheon” and while we were at the store, we also got some Munchkin expansion packs (Munchkin 2 Unnatural Axe + Enhancers).
🎽 I didn't run this week because my right knee was not feeling great. I did go twice to the gym instead and did some stationary biking combined with some weight training. Leg strengthening actually helps a lot. I plan on going for a run later today and see how it goes.

🎧 Listening

Candlemass – Epicus Doomicus Metallicus (1986)
Iron Maiden – Fear of the Dark (1992)
Iron Maiden – Powerslave (1984)
Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
Castle Rat – Into the Real (2024)
Castle Rat – The Bestiary (2025)

📖 Books I'm Reading

The Unraveling by Benjamin Rosenbaum
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
Radical Candor by Kim Scott

📌 Cool online reads

You Really Should Read The Expanse – I second his recommendation! Amazing series!
Leviathan Falls by Joel – great review of the last book of The Expanse series. It has spoilers if you haven't read the series, so go with caution.
5 Albums by Andreas – Great list! Coincidentally, I just discovered Candlemass. It's crazy that I'd never heard their first album before. I guess doom metal hasn't really been on my radar. Good stuff!
SciFi Books: The Golden Oldies by Alexandra – Classics never die!
A Modest Proposal for Funding Transit Instead of AI by Annalee Newitz

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#weeknotes #heavymetal

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

Week Notes - Aug 11 to Aug 17 2026

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 17:09:41 +0000

✒️ I've been consistent with both my personal and work Bullet Journals. I'm enjoying the experience! I'm drafting a post about it to be published soon.
📕 I'm so glad that I finished reading The Expanse series with “Leviathan Falls”! I read the first book in 2012 (I can't believe it's been 12 years! 😱). Time is an illusion. It's definitely one of my favorites series of all time. I want to read some of the short stories/novellas now.
📘 I've also finished “Platform Decay” (The Murderbot Diaries #8). This is also a cool series that I started reading back in 2018. I haven't watched the new TV series yet, but I plan to someday.
💼 Work has been crazy busy and it really sucks most of my energy during the day. But I feel I'm managing my energy the best I can and doing my daily shutdown routine has been key to leave work behind and relax.
☀️ I noticed I've been skipping my morning yoga routine in exchange for quick light stretching. Stretching is great, and it is my daily “minimum viable exercise”, if that makes sense. But because I've going less to the gym during Summer, I've not been doing too much strengthening and my knees start to complain. My goal this week is to get back to my 20min morning yoga routine.
👟 Running and walking have been consistent enough, I can't complain!
🧩 I've been having fun with Murdoku!
📅 I got an erasable magnetic monthly planner for our fridge to help my partner and me to plan ahead. My partner barely keeps a digital calendar (he is not great at checking his calendar) so he always asks me about future plans, so now we have a place to share this information in a more visible way.

Post 08 of #Blaugust #weeknotes

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

Week Notes - August 04 to August 10 2026

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 22:21:30 +0000

📝 I’m participating in Blaugust! And I create a page on my notebook to track my writing. I’ll share that in a different post soon.
📕 I abandoned a book I was reading for my local Book Club. It’s called “Amberlough” by Lara Elena Donnelly. I read up to 19%, which is actually a lot! I always want to give a book a chance, but sometimes I wish I was more ruthless. I pushed through and now I feel bad that I used all that time to read a book I wasn’t enjoying. Anyway, I’m getting better at it. There was a time when I would finish a book just to put on a check mark, even though I was hating the experience.
📘 On the other hand, I’m almost done with the last book of The Expanse series “Leviathan Falls” by James S.A. Corey. I love this series, and I don’t want it to end!
🎭 My energy levels have been a bit up and down these past few days. I don’t sleep well overall during Summer, and I can’t wait for Fall to arrive! It’s my favorite season.
👟 At least walking and running have been consistent this month. I went for a run three times and walked at least every other day.
I was searching for a grammar checker tool and I found this open-source one called Harper. Pretty good without being annoying. I added to my browser.
🎬 I watched two movies: “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and “Masters of the Universe”. The first is just 100% cuteness. The second is funny in this meta sort of way, and since I grew up watching the cartoons, it got me for nostalgia reasons. The plot is not great but it makes fun of itself, and that is what makes it watchable.

Post 04 of #Blaugust #weeknotes

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

Week Notes - July 14 to August 03 2026

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 20:29:04 +0000

✒️ I’ve been using a Bullet Journal for 2 months now. I’m starting to get a feel for what works for me, and I realized I don’t miss most of the digital tools I was using before. I still use a digital calendar, email and Standard Notes, but I’ve been very satisfied having my to-dos in analog form.
📘 I started reading the last book of The Expanse series, “Leviathan Falls” by James S.A. Corey. I love to have these beloved series to get back to, and I might be unconsciously taking longer to read it because I don’t want it to end?! 🫣
📕 Another series I’m almost done is The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. I finished “Captain Vorpatril's Alliance” and I can’t wait to go to the next book.
🥳 I am now closer to being 50 years old than 45 years old, somewhere in between. And I feel great about it, no regrets.
🔎 I started doing the weekly Word Search and Sudoku that comes in a free weekly flyer with local store sales in my neighbourhood. It’s been ages since I’ve done any of these, and I am enjoying the experience. I love that the section on the flyer is called “Your Moment of Zen”. Anyway, I rediscovered Sudoku, and I heard about this thing called Murdoku that I now want to explore!
🎬 I went to see “The Odyssey” by Christopher Nolan in a regular IMAX cinema. I haven’t been to the movies since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, so that was interesting. The movie is great; it was more gory and bloody than I was expecting, but I enjoyed the narrative choices and the excellent sound design.
🤘 I discovered a new metal band! And by new, I mean really new: they have released only 2 albums so far. The band is called Castle Rat, led by a woman, with a sound clearly inspired by early doom metal and Black Sabbath. Also, they use this over-the-top medieval fantasy 80’s aesthetic that is retro and quirky and amazing.
📝 I decided to join the Blaugust Festival of Blogging !! My first post is here.
📺 I’ve been enjoying the series Connections by James Burke on Curiosity Stream.

Post 02 of #Blaugust #weeknotes

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

Week Notes - June 26 to July 13 2026

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 01:40:46 +0000

This is more like “month” notes rather than “week” notes, but here they are!
The last week of June was quite busy at work with a big tender closing that sucked out all of my energy.
🎢 Thankfully, after that job was closed I had a 3-day weekend and my partner and I went to Montreal for an event at La Ronde. It’s the second largest amusement park in Canada, located on Jean Drapeau Island. The last time I had been on a rollercoaster I was a teenager, I think, and I remember being terrified by them. This was a great opportunity to conquer my fear. I was impressed! The location is gorgeous and you get these amazing views from the top of any ride you choose. It was the first time I went on rollercoaster rides with my partner, and I discovered that he LOVES this s*hit. He was like a lost boy in a candy store with infinite money. The best part was that it was a private event (sponsored by my partner’s employer to celebrate the company’s anniversary), so the whole park was closed just for us! We could go on any ride, anytime, with no lines. I am spoiled now. I’m definitely not afraid of rollercoasters anymore. I had lots of fun!
📔 I’ve been using my paper notebook every day now. I’ve been enjoying starting a daily log, adding entries for next actions, notes and thoughts. I still have a projects list and someday/maybe list. But because the Bullet Journal system organizes things by day, week, month and a future log, this is giving me a time dimension that I was lacking before. It gives me a better sense of time and a realistic view of how much I can really accomplish.
🌲 I had a second long weekend and this time we went to Camp Fortune to do the Peak to Peak Ziplines: 3 ziplines, one 50 ft drop tower in a 1.5 hour tour. Gorgeous views of the Gatineau Park! We also did the Mountain Coaster which was fun.
📺 I’ve been enjoying the video series “Tom Scott: England” on Nebula.
🎵 Polyphonic is doing a series of videos about drugs, music and culture on Nebula. I watched “A Cultural History of LSD”. Recommended!
🗞️ Long article if you are interested in the impacts of reading (or not reading) in our current media-rich disctracting environment: “The End of Reading Is Here” by Rose Horowitch at The Atlantic. We readers are part of a subculture now, apparently.

#weeknotes

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

Week Notes – June 03 to June 16 2026

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 01:47:24 +0000

📆 End of May went by as a blur for me. I had a busy month at work and I really didn't log into my personal computer that much in my off hours. In general, that has been the trend for me: spending less time with and within the digital world.
✈️ Right in the middle of a super busy week I left on vacations to attend a CIQS Congress and spend some time in Prince Edward Island. The Congress lasted for 2 and a half days, and I extended my stay at Charlottetown for roughly a week.
⛵ It was great to disconnect from everything. PEI is such a picturesque and charming place. It's quiet, and peaceful and beautiful. I was inspired to take long walks along the shoreline, watching sailboats go by. I stopped at coffee shops to enjoy great food and read. I wandered around town discovering hidden pieces of history and admiring colourful buildings. Charlottetown has so much history!
📔 On the first day I was there, I stumbled upon this nice bookstore that had all sorts of gorgeous notebooks and pens. I got inspired to get a bound notebook, so that I could take notes while I was in PEI. It was a Leuchtturm1917 size B6+, dotted. I got it and I immediately inspired to start a Bullet Journal. I have been thinking about moving to paper to manage actions and projects for a while now. And since I was on vacations, I decided to give it a try.
🖊️ So, I've been bullet journaling for a couple of weeks now, and I've been enjoying the experience. For some reason, looking at a task list on the computer or on my phone is not as satisfying, and honestly, it often feels more like a source of anxiety than a tool for productivity. I'm doing this paper experiment for now and it's been interesting.
📖 While I was there, I read “Anne of Green Gables” by L.M. Montgomery. It's a Canadian Literature classic from 1908. It's such a lovely book!
🖼️ I visited the Anne of Green Gables Museum at Cavendish! It was raining the day I went there, so I didn't do the trails, but I will come back some day and walk those trails.
🎽 I did the Run for Women – 10K!
🦞 I attended a Lobsterfest, even though I don't like lobster! 🤭

#weeknotes

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

Week Notes – May 01 to May 19 2026

Tue, 19 May 2026 20:52:51 +0000

⛱️ I took a couple of days off, my first vacation days since the beginning of the year! I was due for some downtime. And with the warming Spring weather, I did not spend much time online at all. I went for walks, and runs, did some yard work and house cleaning... But I also did some reading and cooking. Simple things.
🏝️ I finished preparations for upcoming trips (booking hotel, tickets, and reservations). I have one trip coming up in early June, and then others in August and October. Exciting times!
🌷 We went to the Tulip Festival to appreciate the pretty flowers. The tulips looked awesome, I think the weather helped this time. I spotted some that I have never seen before! The selection was bigger than in previous years.
📅 I updated my Happy Planner, which was a bit neglected over the past month. I still enjoy using Nirvana as my digital to-do list and project organizer, but I like to plan on paper: first a weekly plan, then a day-to-day log. I am even thinking about doing more handwritten journaling. I've been enjoying being away from screens.
📫 I just realized that I haven't checked my RSS feeds in almost a month! I miss reading some friends’ blogs, but at the same time I am feeling okay about being offline for a while. I remember having dozens of feeds there, and now I'm thinking I want to do some curation to have less digital information being thrown at me. I think I'm entering a digital minimalist phase right now.

#weeknotes

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

Week Notes - April 07 to April 20 2026

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 01:08:34 +0000

🖥️ I’m in the middle of one of those crazy periods at work with two big deadlines at once. I do my best to make sure I wind down at the end of the day and don't carry all the stress into my personal life, but I still feel the consequences of a stressful work day: depleted energy so it's harder to make good choices for recovery afterwards. But overall, I'm doing the best I can. Going for a light walk right after work helps a lot.
🎭 Stress at work means bubbling anxiety all day. I started drinking an espresso at work, and it’s visible that caffeine makes me feel more anxious. I can notice how it makes me jittery. My eyes start twitching. Instead of giving me energy, it exacerbates the stress. So no more coffee for me, it's not worth it.
📠 I needed to renew my stomach medication this week, and I got a virtual consult with the same doctor that always renews it for me. All is great, he says he sent the prescription to the pharmacy. A few days later, I don't get any notification on the pharmacy app that the prescription is being processed. So I started a back and forth between the pharmacy and the clinic to make sure the prescription gets where it needs to go. I get on the phone, talk to the clinic, and they tell me I need to send an email for them to FAX the prescription again. I send the email, and I ask if they can just send me the PDF, and I'll print it and take it to the pharmacy, but they said they can't email me anything, but that they REFAXED it. The pharmacy gets nothing, and I reply the email, and they ask me to confirm the pharmacy's FAX number. Which I do, and they REFAX it again! Eventually, the pharmacy gets it, but at this point I don't know if it was really by FAX or some other form of communication. It's a mystery to me.
📖 I'm really enjoying “Tiamat's Wrath” the 8th book of “The Expanse” series. It's tense, the stakes are super high, people die, there's a lot going on.
🍄‍🟫 I've been having nightmares lately! I wake up between 3am and 4am in the middle of it. They are usually about me losing control of something (like while driving) or getting lost or loosing something.
⌚ My partner got a Casio CA-53W-1, you know, the classic one with a calculator!
🧩 We did some more of our “Starry Night” puzzle. It's a tough one!
🎮 I started playing “Pillars of Eternity” again. I was missing a good RPG, and I never went too far in this game. My progress is extremely slow, because I have not been able to look at too many screens in my spare time and I like playing on my laptop (which, btw, runs great on Steam with Ubuntu).
👏 I added to my Someday-Maybe list: Jailbreak my old Kindle Paperwhite and install KOReader as an experiment (thanks Joel for letting me know KOReader exists!)
I don't have the energy to make a list of videos or cool articles today, so maybe next time! 🙌

#weeknotes

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

Week Notes – Mar 16 2026 to April 06

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 01:20:51 +0000

✏️ I almost didn’t write this post today. Things are extremely busy at work and the last thing I want to do when I get home is to look at another screen. But I always feel good after I’ve written some notes about my weeks, so here it goes!
🎧 I’m listening to “Fear of the Dark” by Iron Maiden while I type this.
🖥️ It’s one of those periods at work when two deadlines compete against each other, and the amount of work is disproportionate, but it still feels achievable. And it really would be. Rant starting in 3, 2, 1… I use Windows 11, which has annoying mandatory updates every week. I also get random Bluetooth bugs depending on the phase of the moon (my Bluetooth headphones sometimes just stop working once in a while for no apparent reason… it must be drivers). On top of that, there are 4 or 5 layers of apps for security (things like ZScaler, antivirus, and who knows what else). The result is that it literally takes 8-10 min to boot my computer. If there is an update, that will turn into 10-15 min at least. And on top of that, we use software that are hosted in Citrix. And all of them are painfully slow. I work with design drawings, and I take off quantities based on those drawings, so imagine trying to click points on the screen with 5 seconds of lag between each click. It’s insane! And I know that there is a better way.
🐧 Which brings me to Linux! 🥰 It’s a joy to use, it’s quiet, stable, light, and I can actually feel like it’s my PERSONAL computer. Because I can make it mine!
💻 Now we are a Linux household! My partner was very frustrated with his old gaming laptop running Windows 10. It’s a 2017 Asus ROG. He was running into a bunch of issues. He was trying to run a program called “RealityScan” to create 3D Models of a historic building, and his laptop kept either: running out of RAM or disk space. He tried to clean up Windows, with limited results. His Onedrive was acting up, it wasn’t syncing, it was crashing, and he was afraid he was losing his data. He thought about installing Linux last year, but he kept pushing it. So after a day completely frustrated with his Windows machine, he finally got a big enough external hard drive to back up everything (which had its own challenges, I won’t get into that here, but it takes FOREVER to copy files out of Onedrive… I know because I’ve been there).
💾 After all the backups were done, I gladly provided him with my Ubuntu USB stick, and we installed Linus on his computer in 6 minutes. Seriously, I timed it, it took 6 minutes! Everything worked straight away, he could run his RealityScan, he transferred his cloud data out of Onedrive, and he just avoided spending money with a new laptop. He was very happy!
♣️ We both installed the AisleRiot Solitaire game, because we all need some downtime.
🀄 Speaking of downtime, I also installed KMahjong on my computer, and it’s been so nice to have this quiet and relaxing game to relax for a bit. I know I could play my Steam games, but sometimes I just need something simple and low-pressure that lets me unwind without having to think too much.
🤘 We went to a live orchestra concert with heavy metal! It’s called AnesthesiA – Hommage à Metallica symphonique and it’s basically a cover metal band playing Metallica with an orchestra. Super cool!
I want to learn more about Linux. I’ve been slowly getting more comfortable with the command line, and I watched a few very introductory videos.

📺 Videos I watched:

Linux File System/Structure Explained! by DorianDotSlash
Basic Linux Navigation by Nathan Backman
Top 7 Ubuntu Tips & Tweaks by ExplainingComputers
This is Going to be Very Messy by Hank Green
Why are these 3 letters on almost all of my zippers? by Veritasium

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#weeknotes

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

Week Notes – Feb 12 to Mar 15 2026

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 01:42:41 +0000

Has it been almost a month since the last week notes? What is time, anyway?
☃️ There was a sequence of above freezing temperature days, so it started to look like Spring is knocking at our door. The Rideau Canal Skating rink closed, most of the urban ski trails also closed for the season already.
🎿 But, the last weeks of February were still very snowy, so I did complete a Level 2 Classic Ski Class and a Classic Ski Workshop “Help with Hills”. I am not that afraid of going down a slope anymore. And I got a bit better with my gliding and pole coordination. And right when I started to understand the ski mechanics better, the snow was gone and the season was over. Well, I will be ready for the next winter.
⛸️ I completed my Level 3 Ice Skating class as well. I got better at using both edges in 1-foot glides and around a circle. Also, backwards skating felt less impossible, but I still haven’t got to the point where I could do backwards cross-overs. And that’s fine, I’m happy with what I can do so far, which is light-years away from when I started ice skating in 2019. I’m so glad I didn’t give up and kept coming back to ice skating every winter, regardless of how challenging it was.
🎭 I’ve had varying degrees of energy levels since the beginning of the year. Some days I feel tired overall, and all I can do is go to work, keep up with the bare minimum of house/life chores and maybe read a bit before sleeping. And that low energy state goes on for a week or so, and then suddenly there is a week when my energy is back to more normal levels. I blame it on perimenopause, because I keep doing all the good things: meditation, yoga, exercise, balanced diet.
We finally got an opening to see a Family Doctor! We used to have one but when the pandemic started, the doctor went back to his home country, and me and my husband had to navigate the health system here using the walk-in clinics when needed. That helped me get in contact with some specialists, but now I have the chance again to do a full check-up, and it makes contacting the specialists easier.
📖 These past weeks I focused more on reading books rather than reading online articles.
📕 I finished reading “Babel-17” by Samuel Delaney for my local book club. Classic sci-fi written in the 60s, truly ahead of its time, with a strong female protagonist, queer normative, seeds of cyberpunk with psychedelic vibes. Very weird!
🌳 We were gifted with a bonsai!

📺 Cool Videos:

Movie: Battle Beyond the Stars (1980): I heard about this movie on the podcast Starship Alexandria by Emma Newman and Adrian Tchaikovsky. Watch the movie before listening to the podcast (unless you want spoilers from a 45-year-old movie). It’s one of those low-budget 80s gems that’s brilliant in its ridiculousness in a cheesy sci-fi universe. Special effects are by young James Cameron, and the spaceships are all unique made with model miniatures. Also, soundtrack by young James Horner, who later composed one of my favourites (from the movie Krull).
AI and War by ColdFusion: we are living in a dystopia 😶
The Internet Was Weeks Away From Disaster and No One Knew by Veritasium: fascinating story of someone trying to exploit open source code?
You are a better writer than AI. (Yes, you.) by josh (with parentheses): Excellent video essay about LLMs!

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#weeknotes #skiing #iceskating

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