Week in review: Week to 18 October
Oct. 20th, 2024 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pedanther. At the beginning of last year, I read Harley Quinn: Reckoning, the first in a trilogy of YA novels retelling the origin story of the Batman supporting character (and increasingly a headline character in her own right) Harley Quinn. It was very good, although I found it stressful, and had to read it in short bursts with long breaks between, because of it being a prequel and having certain events from Harley's canonical backstory hanging over it. After I finished it I immediately put a hold request on the sequel at the library - and then spent the next year and a half putting it off, and flipping the hold every time the book became available, because it was apparent from the blurb that this was going to be the volume in which those canonical events started happening, and I was dreading seeing how they played out. This week I finally bit the bullet and started reading Harley Quinn: Ravenous; the first few chapters were heavy going, but once it reached a certain point and it became apparent how the author was going to handle Harley's story a lot of the dread evaporated and after that I got through it much quicker. (It does an interesting thing where it treats Harley's usual origin story as just the rumour that got around later; by the end of Ravenous, you can see how people started telling that story, but some of it is exaggeration or misrepresentation and some of it is quite plainly the result of people who weren't there adding assumptions to incomplete information and jumping to entirely incorrect conclusions.) I'm still going to need a breather before I tackle the final book of the trilogy, but I'm not dreading it in the same way.
. This week was an anniversary of the the first local Parkrun event, which reminds me that I haven't kept up on reporting my progress there. I'm still doing Parkrun regularly, and have passed a few more official milestones: I've now participated in over 250 individual Parkrun events, and am working my way toward 500. My record as an event volunteer is much more spotty, because when I can make it to an event I usually prefer to be out on the course getting my exercise and not standing around by the finish line, but for the anniversary event I volunteered to scan membership barcodes. I remarked to the event organiser that this is one thing that has changed over the years: when I first joined, the barcode scanners were rudimentary and nobody was allowed to participate without showing an official member barcode card printed in the regulation size and format, but now the scanning is done with a smartphone app that can recognise a wide variety of sizes and formats, including official Parkrun wristbands and keyring fobs, not to mention the people who just have a copy of the barcode on their own smartphone. (Or smartwatch. At the event, there were several people who presented their barcode on a smartwatch; some of the watches displayed it very small to fit it on the face of the watch, and some displayed it as a square QR code instead. I was relieved when the app was unfazed by either challenge.)
. I went for a long bike ride this week, most of it through the park where Parkrun is held but exploring some of the many trails that aren't part of the Parkrun course. It was quite a warm day, and I had reason to be glad I'd remembered (for, as far as I can remember, the first time ever) to pack a water bottle in the bike's water bottle holder. It was nice to be out amid the nature for a bit.
. I've been doing very well lately at getting the washing up done regularly. Perhaps by way of compensation, I seem to be getting worse at putting the clean laundry away in a timely manner. (The sticking point appears to be the t-shirts. I thought I'd found a solution, but now that's not doing it either.)
. The café near my house does bubble teas in a wide variety of colours and flavours, but due to the discouragement of single-use plastics they're always served in an opaque cardboard vessel with a sealed lid. I understand the practicalities, but it does rather suck a lot of the fun out of having a brightly-coloured bubble tea when you can't see it.
. This week was an anniversary of the the first local Parkrun event, which reminds me that I haven't kept up on reporting my progress there. I'm still doing Parkrun regularly, and have passed a few more official milestones: I've now participated in over 250 individual Parkrun events, and am working my way toward 500. My record as an event volunteer is much more spotty, because when I can make it to an event I usually prefer to be out on the course getting my exercise and not standing around by the finish line, but for the anniversary event I volunteered to scan membership barcodes. I remarked to the event organiser that this is one thing that has changed over the years: when I first joined, the barcode scanners were rudimentary and nobody was allowed to participate without showing an official member barcode card printed in the regulation size and format, but now the scanning is done with a smartphone app that can recognise a wide variety of sizes and formats, including official Parkrun wristbands and keyring fobs, not to mention the people who just have a copy of the barcode on their own smartphone. (Or smartwatch. At the event, there were several people who presented their barcode on a smartwatch; some of the watches displayed it very small to fit it on the face of the watch, and some displayed it as a square QR code instead. I was relieved when the app was unfazed by either challenge.)
. I went for a long bike ride this week, most of it through the park where Parkrun is held but exploring some of the many trails that aren't part of the Parkrun course. It was quite a warm day, and I had reason to be glad I'd remembered (for, as far as I can remember, the first time ever) to pack a water bottle in the bike's water bottle holder. It was nice to be out amid the nature for a bit.
. I've been doing very well lately at getting the washing up done regularly. Perhaps by way of compensation, I seem to be getting worse at putting the clean laundry away in a timely manner. (The sticking point appears to be the t-shirts. I thought I'd found a solution, but now that's not doing it either.)
. The café near my house does bubble teas in a wide variety of colours and flavours, but due to the discouragement of single-use plastics they're always served in an opaque cardboard vessel with a sealed lid. I understand the practicalities, but it does rather suck a lot of the fun out of having a brightly-coloured bubble tea when you can't see it.
