HelenP

Sat in the bright sunshine this afternoon, for just a moment, between chores and study. Trying to take joy from small things, wherever I can.

A lovely thing, in a week of horrible news, is witnessing my friends excitement at the finding of lost Dr Who episodes!

Screenshot of someone signing "evaporation"

I learned about a brilliant project yesterday to support British Sign Language (BSL) users, creating new signs for scientific terms in chemistry, oceanography, data science & more.
And they're fabulously descriptive. Do have a look and share!

www.ssc.education.ed.ac.uk/BSL/index.ht...

It's been 11 years of part time study to get here and I'm almost there but I thought I would feel driven to finish it. But I don't.

Like you, it's not where my buzz is any more.

So, playing guitar has become a part of my life. Also making art and lifting silly things. Slowly the part of me that was driven to study science is being replaced. To actually study gets harder and harder. I worry that I might actually run out of oomph and just stick it all in the bin

Grinding through endless MSc coursework.
BIG BOREDOM ENERGY.

If we could fund the EA independently rather than use party politics to cut it (or overfund it but that's never happened) according to which party gets more votes, then I'd agree.

IMHO there are some things that should be independent of party politics. Water, power and NHS to start with.

But, I can't make a 2nd tier complaint because HMRC closed my original complaint without actually addressing it. So, guess what? I have to start again!

Let the record show that my 1st complaint was made in June 2025. FFS.

HMRC made a mistake. I made a complaint. HMRC sent me details about a child which isn't mine & didn't address the complaint. I made a 2nd tier complaint. HMRC did not respond. I go to the Adjudicator to complain about HMRC who tell me I need to make the 2nd tier complaint, that I've already made...

Here we go with the annual crap:

"Would you prefer us not to send you emails about Mother's Day? Just click here so we can pretend to put you on a nonexistent list and still send you the same bullshit. And we'll do it again next year too."

FFS.

Urgh. Stop cut and pasting shit from X on here. I came here to get away from that. Urgh.

In the process of ditching Google.

Yesterday we factory reset then switched off all our Google Home devices.

We've already switched from Gmail (that was A Big Thing, I had that address since it's birth).

Turned off Gemini on my phone.

The house is quiet today. I'm going out for a walk.

Yes yes yes yes yes! Politics of HOPE and UNITY! Well done Hannah!

In fact I will literally burst into tears if you make me do that stuff, without any form of additional input to distract my brain from the sheer boredom.

With this in mind, I'm going to try and do 30 minutes on Zwift with a podcast.

I'll take sandbag carries or throws over nonsense like the elliptical trainer, the Stairbastard, or the treadmill or suchlike.

I can't do the slow steady HR zone 2 stuff at all because it's sooooooooo dull. My head will not allow it. 5 minutes and I'm mentally climbing the walls.

Yep. We're going to use my car for the strong woman competition at the end of March so it was practice for that. I got 6 reps in 60 seconds!

Yesterday I deadlifted my car for reps and today I've taught myself how to play the chords to Wish You Were Here on the guitar.

These are two things I couldn't have done this time last year.

I saw this a few days ago and it broke me.

Yesterday I had a session with the 50 kg atlas stone and today, all four limbs hurt. Ow.

... the perfect person to cleverly blend the style & menace of the first film with the plot & characters of the book including the ending. Fabulous.

Thanks, Mr King, again, for many hours of late night reading.

Finally read 'The Shining'. Loved it. The film? Other than the look of The Overlook & the camera work, it didn't stick close enough to the book to be the characters & plot that I loved.

Then I read Doctor Sleep. Loved it. The film? Excellent. I knew I would love it because Mike Flanagan was...

Gym this morning. Log lifts, 2 sets of 12 light then 2 sets of 3 heavy. Ow my shoulders.

Gym today. Didn't meet any newbies 😕 but did get to deadlift and do sandbag over yoke nonsense with my buddies 😊

Surprised that the 50kg sandbag just flew over the yoke today.

Stop asking me to review stuff! Stop it! Stop it now!

It's only January and it looks like the whole world has gone to shit already.

I'm not one of the New Year New Me people.

New Year Same Me just doing my thing throughout the year as I always do.

If you're new to the gym, nice to meet you and how can I help make your experience a positive one?

Everyone starts here and I want you to love it as much as I do.

Happy New Year! Let's hope for peace in 2026.

Heh it will be a while yet! I'm still learning to play. I started with an acoustic last May and I practice every other day but it's a slow (and awesome) process.

I do that too!

Yes! I got a practice amp too!