In the idiotic imperial unit system, the equivalent unit of metre is…
Unnecessarily complicating unit conversion for a hobbyist developer!
Facebook is, behind the covers, a test of friendship.
And I came out of it yesterday bruised, yet smarter.
There’s this friend I really like. We share a lot of interests – hiking, outdoors, animals, spanish, Raghs, travelling on a whim, and more. She’s the only one of my wife’s friends who really, openly welcomed me when we started dating. And has stayed friendly, and in touch, since. Also, she has two strong, winning moves – she yaps like there’s no tomorrow, and she smiles a lot.
So, she was amongst the barely half-dozen people I actually *follow* on Facebook. Unlike the many dozens I’m *friends* with, but don’t follow.
Yesterday, she started liking and sharing posts about an extremely popular, and divisive, politician. I don’t like him, and quite abhor people who blindly praise him, and/or attack anyone perceived to have criticised him. And here she was, going all fan girl over him.
From amongst the two choices, debate or ignore, I chose the latter. I rated her friendship far higher than my dislike of the person. Had she been valued lesser as a friend, I might have jumped in to debate/criticise her idol, possibly polluting, if not ending, the friendship (given how strongly people feel for this politician).
For her, and for our friendship, I just unfollowed her.
We still have our shared interests, and shared memories. We still can continue to (plan to) explore, travel, hike, chat, and do the things that friends do. And we’ll continue without any lingering bile from a debate over a politician.
There are, after all, far more important things to debate – cats (hers) vs dogs (ours)!
Lesson learnt:
The best way to save a friendship, sometimes, is to unfriend someone.
Yesterday was a happy day.
Started with a happy morning. Not a productive one, just me swinging to DTPH songs all morning1.
Followed up with a high-energy mid-day. Ran again. Worked – short, but highly productive in output. Resolved a bug in ClutterFree. Had both breakfast and lunch.
Evening was mostly about travelling to/from and attending ProductCamp London2.
Read an interesting short story on New Yorker, The Weir, on the way there and back.
Finished off the day with another short, but highly productive, bit of work.
Dropped asleep within minutes of landing in the bed, happy and tired.
Yesterday was a strange day.
Days that start so well, so high energy, usually peter out by mid-day, and end in a post-euphoria depression for me. Not yesterday. Something was different.
Saying this at the risk of this being shoved in my face for the next 20 years:
Raghi’s new daily plan, combined with daily runs, may be working.
The voters that you champion and that I can’t stand.
– Josh Lyman, in The West Wing
My boy will follow me everywhere – into raging fire, up the steepest mountain, across deepest seas, and into the mouth of certain death.
Everywhere, except when I pick up *his* towel and walk towards the 2nd bathroom.
Note to self:
Don’t do case interviews at 11 in the night, over Skype, when you’re already suffering from throat infection and fever.
Sister’s visiting. Having commuted from Coventry to Kingston for last 2 days, she’s quite tired, and was snoring quite audibly in the guest bedroom.
I’m sitting, working, in the living room, and could hear her occasionally despite her closed door.
Chewie was sleeping in our bedroom with Raghs.
He just came into the living room, walked straight past me, knocked on her door twice. Don’t know if she opened it, or he pushed it open, but next thing I know, they’re both hugging and sleeping on her bed 1.
Neither’s snoring anymore.
Trying to select my phone wallpaper1 for the grey months…
The contest, really, is between Yellow and Crimson.
Warm, boiled eggs, salt and pepper sprinkled on top.
Taste just as good in cool and wet autumnal England, as in cold and foggy winters in northern India.
Taste just as good at 36, as they did at 10, and at 19.
Taste just as good sharing with wife and dog, as they did with mom, dad and sister, and later with friends and wingies in hostel.
Some things, thankfully, are just the same everywhere :)
The clocks moved back this weekend. There’s more empty, or yellow branches on trees than green ones. The temperature gauge spends more time below 10°C than above it. And I’ve started running and spinning again.
Winter is coming.
