My problem was figuring out how to think about this and, hand in hand with that, what to search for to find simple solutions. Presented here is the simplest solution I have found. The main source of all the information presented here is the Pro Git book. Familiarity with the terminal is assumed.

There will be updates

My friend Martin quickly suggested an even better procedure for achieving the same results. All the below works just fine, but his suggestion nicer so I will probably update this post soon-ish to reflect.

Martin's better version, in short:

• On the server:
  git init --bare

• On the client:
  git init

• git remote add origin [url]

• git push origin HEAD:master

To cut a long story short

• Activate ssh access (called "Remote login" in the "Sharing" system preference pane) on the server Mac.

• Create a bare version of your project:
  git clone --bare ProjectName ProjectName.git

• Copy the bare version to the server:
  scp -r ProjectName.git user@url.to.server:path/to/git/folder

• Clone the project back to your work computer from the server:
  git clone user@url.to.server:path/to/git/folder/ProjectName.git

And boom, we're done. Fore some more details and explanations, read on.

The situation

One Mac on which you have some code. In my case, a laptop with a mixture of projects either in local, Xcode-created, Git repositories and projects completely without version control.

One Mac, in my case a nice little Mac mini under the TV, which acts as some form of server. I want my projects to live here for ease of access, control and additional backup. Both Macs run Lion and have a recent version of Xcode installed. (On the server and for this exercise, this only matters because Xcode installs and sets Git up for you. Everything should work exactly the same no matter how you got Git on your server, but this was my setup so it is the only one I have tried.)

To begin with, turn on "remote login" in the Sharing panel in System preferences on the server. This enables logging in over ssh, which can be useful for a million different things. You can also set up which types of users get to log in, create new users and so forth. For my case, I am quite happy to keep going with the users I already have.

Decide where you want to store your repositories. When you log in using ssh, you by default end up in the users' home folder. So it is convenient to put your folder for repositories reasonably near that. For my case, I already had a folder for coding right inside my home folder, so I threw a git folder in there.

Getting existing Git versioned projects to the server

Fire up a terminal and go to the parent folder of your project's folder. Type:

git clone --bare ProjectName ProjectName.git

… where "ProjectName" is the name of the project's folder (inside of which you find the .git folder). If there are spaces and stuff it is easiest to put the name in quotes and change the .git version to a similar name without spaces. So, for example, git clone --bare "Project name" ProjectName.git.

This creates a folder full of relatively indecipherable stuff which is just right for putting on your server.

To send it there, type:

scp -r ProjectName.git user@url.to.server:path/to/git/folder

ProjectName.git will be put inside the folder specified at the end of the path. The -r means "recursive" and tells the copy to include everything inside folders and sub-folders. Leave it out and things will not work. "user" is an existing user on the server. When you hit enter you will be prompted for the user's password. Enter it, hit enter and the copy should begin. For local network copies, it also ought to finish pretty quickly.

Once it does, it is time for the exciting part: cloning the repository from the server and testing everything. At this point it should be safe to delete your local project folder and the .git version as everything is safe on the server. If you are anything like me, though, you probably want to keep the folders around until you have tested this step. So, head where you want your fresh, server-connected, project to live and type:

git clone user@url.to.server:path/to/git/folder/ProjectName.git

Again, the folder ProjectName will be created inside the folder which you are in when you issue the command.

Time to check that everything worked. Open up the freshly cloned project in Xcode and head to the Repositories tab of the Organizer. When you highlight your project you will notice the third line "Origin" displaying the URL of your server, the very same one you entered when issuing the final git clone command.

Congratulations, you are all set! You can now keep working just like you did before, committing code as you go. Commits are local as always. Issue a push when you want to send your work to the server, and a pull if you want to download changes.

Extra material: putting an old project under version control

This is straight out of Apple's documentation. At the time of writing, Xcode provides no way of adding an existing project to git version control, so once again we go to the terminal.

Open the project's folder in the terminal and enter the following three commands with enter presses in-between.

git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"

Then you can proceed with the above recipe, creating a bare repository and sending it to the server. This works and is quick (which is why I did it this way), but it is not optimal. For one thing, adding . means adding exactly everything, including build folders and such stuff you would rather be without. For another, I am pretty certain there is a way to go straight from unversioned code to a bare repository or something and save a couple of steps. But, to my mind, getting everything under control reliably and easily is more important than doing it the ideal way. Details can be fiddled with once everything is safe and sound.

Time flies, as always. It has already been two months since I bought and began using my Adidas adipures. They have been my outdoor running shoes the whole time. So, how has the story unfolded past the first two weeks?

Numbers

I have ran 29 times for a total of 1231 minutes and 260 kilometers.

Aches

The adipures are still by far the kindest shoes I have ever had when it comes to blisters, chafing, blue toenails and the like. I have managed to develop a bit of a sore on my right foot where a seam or something is somewhat in the wrong place. One blister is not bad in itself, and I truly was asking for that one too. I noticed a hint of soreness well in advance, then proceeded to run for several days (some of them without my usual day of rest inbetween too) without a band-aid or anything else for protection. Apart from this, I have not had any incidents of pain, unexpected aches or anything of that kind. But I keep listening carefully to how my body feels during and after each run. I still feel more "worn" in certain muscles and joints after a given distance than I think I would have in other shoes, but it still feels like it is all natural adaptation and build-up.

Weather

When it comes to temperature, I still think around zero degrees celsius is as low as you want to go in adipures. (Especially if you stand still outdoors for any length of time, stretching for example.) And if the ground is wet, you want it to be a bit warmer still. Five degrees and rain leaves my toes a lot colder than zero and dry conditions.

Oh, and there is probably no way I could run in adipures in icy conditions. The kind of grip just is not there, and crossing a moderately flat and icy surface can certainly be a good exercise in balance and stubbornness, but definitely not one in running.

Durability

So far, I have nothing at all to report here. The shoes seem to be holding up perfectly to what I am putting them through. Pebbles can get lodged in the pattern pretty easily, but they have been easy to remove and have not left any noticeable marks so far.

Regularity

I have kept my regular running schedule (aiming for every other day and pretty much achieving it) during the whole time, and I have not used any other shoes for running. I started slower and with shorter rounds on average, but now I am back to my common distances - five to ten kilometers with a longer run (usually twenty kilometers) thrown in a few times per month.

Speed

It is of course very hard to say, but I imagine I run at about the same speed as I would have in other shoes too. I am nowhere near my best times ever, but that was just as true in the period before I changed shoes too. In any case, I think I am still developing and getting used to this kind of running. Today (January 15th) I experimented a few times with landing even further to the front of the foot. The result was an earlier landing and a step which felt really flowing and soft. I do not think I could use that step for too long right now, but it definitely felt like the direction to go. There is always more to discover and try!

But why?

My legs feel more worn, I am not getting faster and, my feet get colder and I have to pay more attention to the way I move. So why switch to shoes like these? For me, it is a move toward simplicity. I want my exercise to be simple, uncomplicated and easy to go about. I want to exercise to feel good, not to chase times, distances or "optimize" my life for best performance. If my body is harmed by doing something, I should stop doing it. I also do not want to do things which depend on lots of technology or perfect circumstances. Somewhere from this perspective comes my interest in and pleasure from minimalist running shoes. I want to run in a natural way which my feet and body can support, not some way which needs strange padded and dampening footwear to work. If it takes time to get used to, so be it. If I can never be as fast as I can in more artificial shoes, who cares? I do not run to break records in any case. The less stuff I need to run and feel good the better, and there is definitely a lot less stuff in a minimalist shoe than a more common one.

This train of thought started with writings a few months ago which made me realize I am not and probably never will be a customer of Google. Google's customers are people who want to place ads, and my attention is being sold. Twitter has been trying to introduce ads for a while. Now Instagram is announcing that they are about to do the same. I have some thoughts around this "free now, ads later" model.

Essentially, it feels kind of dishonest to me. You build and get people hooked on an experience. Then, you alter it in order to make money. If you built something pure and focused enough in the beginning, which I would say Twitter and Instagram have, you are pretty certain to make things worse in the process.

Also, and perhaps more importantly in the big picture, you are taking your initial customers - the users who use your service - and selling them to your actual customers. So not only am I not getting the service I grew to like anymore, I am also not the customer and so my interests will no longer be the driver of the company providing the service.

So what if this is the only way you could have built this amazing service and network of users, this bait and switch clearly indicates you built something you knew you could not support as is. Is building an unsustainable dream something to be proud of?

Of course, I suppose this "strategy" is natural for VC-supported businesses - the potential for a huge payoff is there. You could hit the jackpot selling eyeballs looking at something of enough interest. But you also might miss that lofty goal and have everything disappear down the toilet at one speed or another. Building something sustainable from the start seems much more appealing to me. Then again, the pessimist in me comes in and asks how many of us would actually pay for all these ad-supported things. Perhaps ads can sustain more impossible dreams for longer? Perhaps it is the best, even the only, way? But I don't want to believe it, and I certainly seem to have my ad-tolerance ever lowering.

Clearly, I prefer to be the actual customer of the things I use. Why would I share my photos through Instagram if the real purpose of the service is to sell my attention? If the real purpose is to be another pipe for ads? Why would I want to trust someone running a service like that to keep my interests in mind going forward?

(And sure, there are plenty of cases where the balance tips and it seems worth the ads. See Google search and Facebook. But they too tread quite a bit on the wrong side of my comfort line, and are not beyond frequent re-evaluation and possible abandonment.)

Perhaps this is part of why I love Apple too? They sell stuff to me. I am their customer, and they have an interest in serving me appealing things. Me, not someone else. This arrangement feels simple, clear and honest to everyone.

My Flickr pro account is up for renewal soon. Paying for continued service there just started to seem even more appealing. Flickr lets me be their customer, will Instagram and Twitter?

In a way, I don't really care. I love what the two services are now, but if they change too much I will simply stop loving them and move on.

So … anyone out there making a nice for-sensible-pay version of Twitter and/or Instagram?

No further questions, your honor.

Why run?

Why spend the time, the wear and the energy?
Why force yourself out no matter the weather, the time of the year and of the day?

Because sometimes, you feel like you are moving against the tide.
It is raining and you are going, ever so slowly, right into the wind.
It is blowing straight through your already soaked clothes.

It is yelling
"THIS ALL YOU GOT?"
straight in your face.

Then, you can look up and answer,
the shadow of a smile on your face:

"No."

This is the type we actually need.

I can believe that it is Lucia tomorrow.

I can believe Christmas will be in less than two weeks.

I can believe it so much that I have actually got started on Christmas preparations.

Still …

What an incredibly packed and quick year it has been!

The second half even more so than the first.

If time has to fly, I can at least tolerate it much better if it flies as well as it has this year.

It all started with a great shopping experience.

In preparation for a trip to New York, the idea of going for a run in Central park naturally came up and was enthusiastically greeted. Clothes were packed, excluding shoes as we intended to get new ones in the city. Thus, we walked into a running focused Footlocker store and were met by one of those nicest sales guys. The kind who knows their stuff inside out because they really care about it and use it themselves, who grasp the level you are on and what you are looking for and help you along with pros, cons and tips without trying to sell you on anything.

Thoughts about barefoot-like, or Vibram five finger-type shoes or whatever one might call them had been swirling around in my mind for well over a year at this point. However, I had never tried a pair on. The Ecco biom I had been using for most of the same period were a step in the same direction though - lighter, promoting the same kind of (supposedly) more natural front-of-foot step as barefoot-type shoes. They also came surrounded by similar types of warning about starting out really, really slow to let your body get used to the new kind of running. I had got used to the Eccos pretty fast and liked them to bits, they were my favourite shoes ever. To sum up, my thoughts were definitely to either get very similar shoes again or move on to even lighter ones. So it was not actually a surprise that I ended up picking these Adipure up, but it certainly was not 100% planned either.

The sales guy and I chatted quite a bit about what I would be using these shoes for - running outdoors that is, on asphalt and softer surfaces - and it all sounded great. Reading up while writing this however, I discovered the adipure seem solely aimed at indoor gym training. Nice, I have shoes made for something I never do. But since they feel so good to me, as will beome clear below, I am unclear on how exactly that might pose a problem to me. Perhaps they will wear out quickly or something? They certainly do not feel made to step on sharp things in, but I doubt some other barefoot-type shoe would be either. I will find out, that is for sure.

In any case, pick them up I did, and I started walking in and getting used to them the very same day. One of the first small moments of magic was when I was walking downstairs. I realized I could bend my toes around the edge of each step. Your feet are suddenly much more in touch with the surfaces on which you walk, much more sensitive and responsive. Each foot is a multitude of sensors and discreet elements, instead of the numb lump it becomes inside the average shoe.

My very first run was around 7,5 kilometers, the first 2,5 on asphalt, the rest on forest track. Before that I had got used to the shoes by walking up and down Manhattan for a couple of days - I guesstimate the total distance to between 15 and 20 kilometers.

The feel of the first few steps was very … stiff? I quickly got the feel that "barefoot" shoes give you very clear feedback on each step. "Good" steps will feel smooth and comfortable while "bad" ones will feel stiff, sort of numb and generally like a bad idea.

You clearly notice how much heel all other shoes have, and this seems to naturally push my step toward the front of the foot simply because it feels more comfortable. Even when walking (not running) and standing, it feels better to keep weight off my heels. As a result, the feeling of being lighter on my feet increases another notch.

Running uphill, it is very easy to completely keep my heels off the ground. I have no idea if that is a good idea or something I will keep doing with more experience, but at this early stage it feels both easy, natural and "right" (as in feeling like it is the right thing to do).

Another early sensation was that of having something between each toe. The only other time I have had that is when I have worn a band aid or something similar, so it feels unusual but good. To top that off, you also have the open space between your toes, so you get cooling and ventilation between each one as you walk.

My second run, two days after the first, was the same stretch as the first, but I only timed myself on the non-asphalt part and used the first 2,5 kilometers as warm-up. This is the way I normally split things up. I already felt lighter and more comfortable running faster, and I made much fewer steps which felt "wrong" or uncomfortable. (Despite, I might add, this run being on a dark autumn evening while the first was in daylight.) I did not feel any unusual pains after either run, only the standard sensations of comfortable wear on new parts of the body.

For someone like me, who finds it too easy to get hung up on numbers (like, say, speed or total time), this adaptation process also had the advantage of taking my attention away from numbers and making me focus more on running itself. That will probably not last long, but I intend to enjoy it while it does. Noticing how each step feels, how I move, how I breathe and what the steps sound like, are all great things I could do a lot more often.

The day after my second run, I was noticeably more worn in unusual parts of my legs but did not feel strained in any other way. It was clear that my body was still used to the work of running, but that the new shoes were altering things as expected and adding some load in new places.

The third round was a calm lunch run. Again, my body felt perfectly normal after a relaxed run, while the now usual places felt more worn than they would have been with other shoes. But those places felt less worn now than before too, so I was clearly moving in the right way. I planned to try my first ten kilometer run on Saturday, three days later.

Yes, Saturday went well. My right knee and some other joints felt a bit more worn than usual - more on the informative side than an acutal warning - but otherwise things feelt surprisingly "normal" or adapted already. On Monday, two days later, I went for a five kilometer run, including my usual jog there and back (2,5 kilometers each way). My feet were already so much more used to the feel and the right ways to move. It was a great feel, even the first few steps on asphalt, which are uphill and right after I leave the house, flowed so much better and felt so much softer than a few runs ago.

Yum! On Wednesday of the same week I had my fastest and lighest run yet, despite stumble-worthy darkness and a few fallen trees to look out for. For a while I was thinking that my joints would be paying a bit of a price afterward, but once I got warm that feeling disappeared, and it did not made any return later either. This was the first time I did my whole usual routine; jogging to the track, running and then jogging back home without any real breaks. At no point did it feel like I was hitting my feet, knees or any other part too hard.

Some points possibly worth making: These shoes breathe, and they take in water easily. Foot temperature is also noticeably, and expectedly, lower than in other shoes. It does not really matter while running, especially not since it also feels like water gets out again easier and bothers less than in other shoes. But if you walk or stand around in cold and/or wet weather your feet will start to feel seriously chilly rather quickly.

This is the easiest time, by a very long shot, my feet have had in new shoes when it comes to blisters, chafing and other minor bruises. I do have two minor ones on my right foot though, both of which I clearly spot when I look at my foot, and neither of which I notice when walking or running. The larger one of them is, I think, actually from the patch with manufacturing information and such. I had the thought of cutting that patch away pretty much from the start, but as I did not actually feel it when running I thought an edge after cutting could easily be more annoying. Now that I see the blister I guess I am moving a step or two closer to bringing out the scissors.

During my latest run I got the sensation that two of the toes on my right foot were interlocked, as if they would have been taped together or somehow jammed into the same toe of the shoe. That was not the case, everything was in fact in perfect order. But I find it fascinating that after two weeks in these shoes I already get a feeling like a wish for something even less restraining.

One last thing for now: realizing the adipure are not really intended for running only makes me even more eager to try on "proper" barefoot-type running shoes. There is so much more to discover.

2011-12-09, more little details

Tonight, some days later and after 15 kilometers in rain and wind, ten of which were on asphalt, I noticed some more details.

First, I had a little blister on one of my toes, the cause of which likely was a small rock wedged between the toes of the shoe. Could that possibly have caused that earlier feeling of two toes being too constrained too? I do not know, but I realize the increased value of keeping my shoes in good order.

Second, I have for many years have a bit of extra hardened skin on the "outside" of my big toes. It has never really bothered me, I have been content to leave it be and file or otherwise remove any chafing. But tonight I noticed both those areas are considerably softer than I recall them feeling in a long time. Perhaps a result of being quite straight out of the shower and after a rather wet run? Perhaps a sign of pressure points of more rigid running shoes being removed? Time will tell I am sure, but in any case it felt good.

The logical side of me knows that
calendrically
yes, it is December.

The whole rest of me has yet to catch up and truly realize that it is almost 22 to Christmas and a whole arkload of things could, and in many cases should, be done before then.

Oh, I do a lot of stuff. Lately, I have been very satisfied with how I choose to spend my time and focus on things. But for best feeling come Christmas Eve, it would not be at all bad if some of those holiday-ish things got through the wall of focus and got some attention.

Yeah, we will see how that goes.

New active corners

Tonight, in something of a surprise move, I some of my furniture around. I recently got myself a Mac mini which lives on the TV bench, and now I am starting to feel certain that the transfer of necessary content from Aura (my Imac) is complete. Thus, I disconnected Aura, put it in a closet and found myself with an empty work-type table surface.

An early thought was to get rid of that table and desk chair completely, but I still think I will like and use a corner for desk work so I pushed that thought onto the storage stack. Instead I shuffled my TV bench and all the stuff around it a few steps to the right, brought an armchair into the bedroom and moved the table and chair across the room.

It is not an ideal setup. Both the bedroom and the living room feel a bit more crowded. On the other hand, they feel so in a kind of cosy way. But more importantly, the change has turned those two corners into places to sit. Working or reading or whatever in a new position tends to give a whole different perspective on and feel for a room. So unless the appearance really starts to bother me somehow I am likely to stick with this at least until these corners start to feel like the same old places to be.

System upgrades

With the transfer to the mini, my home computing setup has changed quite a bit. I am not sure where it will all land, but this is how things stand as of tonight. The mini is connected to the TV and stereo. It has all the things I previously had on Aura, and so holds all my data, media libraries, mail and so on. I do not have any keyboard or mouse connected at the moment, controlling music playback through Apple's Remote app for IOS and any other stuff I need to control through screen sharing solutions. Tonight I bought Screens, which is an excellent VNC client for IOS, and have had great fun using it to control the mini.

My Macbook air remains my main keyboard, for whenever I want to write something. Be it code or any other kind of text. As the mini is actually the more powerful machine - and has a much more spacious screen to boot - I assume I will feel tempted to do development on it too at some point. But before that happens I will probably need to get myself some nicer wireless keyboard and mouse, as stringing USB cables across the room is just too uncomfortable and bothersome to even my limited sense of aesthetics.

The whole shift has already paid off in my music listening. Now that playback control is only a tap or two on my phone away, and the sounds come out of nice speakers without needing to have a humming desktop computer in some corner, I have had a lot more background music to my evenings. Otherwise my music listening goes very much in waves, and I often need to actively remind myself to put something on so that I tend to have silence as my aural background more often than not. Not so anymore, at least not for now. Long live complicated hardware setups and their ability to improve your life.

Arriving at the still closed gate. It is early morning, boarding is a little late and there are few people around. The walkway connecting gates is empty, stretching back from where I came. I have been on a plane for six hours and will soon be on one for two more. The night has passed. I have not slept, and do not plan to do so anytime soon.

I set down my bags, wait for the others to catch up and sit down. People are yawning, leaning on eachother with closed eyes. I walk back into the walkway. I breathe a little deeper, take a quick step, then another one. I flow into a light run past the gates, feeling my body responding, shaking off some of the stale airplane tiredness. I push myself a bit more, then slow down and turn back as I reach the corner. I pick up speed again, stretching out my steps a bit more.

Yes, there is still life, still a heartbeat, still energy.

I slow down and come to a halt, again where I started. I feel the heat raising, my heartbeat and breath still trying to catch up with the sudden motion. It can not have been more than a minute, but it is a world of difference.

There is so much I could write. So much I want to write.

But now, after 30 or so hours of uptime (not bad for a human), is probably not the best time to start writing it.

Suffice to say that I am back in my own cool, wide and soft bed, that it is oh so quiet everywhere and that I have several months' worth of impressions from this one week to process, filter and unpack.

We made the most of it, for sure.

Helt plötsligt var det november och dags för 2011 års upplaga av Finalloppet. Västsveriges ledande terränglopp som arrangörerna kallar det. Jag sprang de knappa nittion kilometrarna för första gången 2010 och tyckte det var en riktigt trevlig upplevelse, så jag var inte svårövertalad när det gällde att anmäla mig igen.

På det hela taget har det varit ett väldigt bra löpår för mig, framför allt under våren och försommaren. Sommaren och hösten har inte varit direkt dåliga, men det har varit si och så med både flyt och energi. Inför loppet hade jag därför ingen klar känsla för om jag var i bättre eller sämre form än året innan, och lika lite för vilket tempo jag skulle vilja springa i. Det som talade tydligast för en förbättring var helt enkelt att det skulle bli andra gången gillt, att ha lite känsla för banan i förväg brukar göra stor skillnad för mig. När dagen för loppet närmade sig infann det sig definitivt en viss energi och förväntan, känslor som absolut inte blev sämre av att vädret var ännu ett snäpp bättre än förra året. Dels var det lite varmare, dels hade det varit klart mindre regn (enligt vad jag minns i alla fall) veckorna innan loppet.

Vis av erfarenhet(?)

De två saker jag tydligt kände att jag kunde förbättra efter förra året var min startposition och min uppvärmning. För att börja med uppvärmningen gjorde jag väldigt lite av den förra året, och därför kändes det som om det tog ett bra tag innan kroppen fick upp ångan ordentligt. Den saken var enkel att förebygga i år med lite lätt jogging fram och tillbaka i väntan på start, och det skadade förstås inte att det var lite varmare i luften också. Värmen var inget problem alls under hela loppet. några enstaka gånger tänkte jag till och med att jag kunde haft kortbyxor. Som det var nu sprang jag i långa vindtäta byxor och kortärmad funktionströja.

När det gällde startpositionen ställde jag mig helt enkelt för långt fram i ett för bra startfält förra året. Resultatet var att jag blev omsprungen under i princip hela loppet, vilket ju varken var speciellt peppande för mig eller speciellt givande för andra löpare. Så i år ställde jag mig glatt mycket längre bak, gissningsvis i den sista femtedelen eller så av startfältet.

Ut, ut och iväg

När starten gick visade det sig att jag kanske överkompenserat lite. Jag minns inga siffror, men jag vågar påstå att deltagarantalet var bra mycket större 2011 än 2010. De flesta nytillskotten verkar ha hört till kategorin glada och sansade amatörer. Snittempot var helt enkelt mycket lägre än förra året, och i en radikal omvändning mot 2010 sprang jag om folk under i princip hela loppet och framför allt under första halvan. Faktum var att det blev riktigt trångt i spåret de första kilometrarna. Det var inte utan att jag blev lite oroad för hur det skulle gå längre fram på banan, där stigarna både är smalare och som mest kuperade. Lyckligtvis hann fältet sprida ut sig innan dess, men om loppet blir större än så här tror jag att det behövs organiserade startgrupper framöver, annars kommer banan inte att kunna hantera antalet löpare på ett bra sätt.

Det blev alltså mycket kryssande i början, men förutom de första två-tre kilometrarna eller så kände jag ändå att jag kunde hålla mitt eget tempo på ett ganska bra sätt. Efter ungefär halva sträckan började det riktiga terrängpartiet av banan med smala stigar, stenar, rötter, mycket kupering och en och annan lerpöl. Precis som förra året lyckades jag undvika vurpor och tyckte hela partiet var riktigt trevligt och omväxlande mot min vanliga löpning på plattare underlag. När man väl kommer ut på planare mark igen efter ungefär tre kilometer går resten av loppet i ett nafs. Jag öste kanske på lite för mycket i ren glädje över att ha klarat av den jobbigaste biten, för de sista kilometrarna kände jag mig faktiskt lite matt, slog av en del på takten och kädne mig osäker på hur mycket ork jag egentligen hade kvar. Kroppen var lyckligtvis inte fullt så nojig som huvudet utan skötte sig bra hela vägen, det blev till och med lite tempohöjning och spurt på upploppet.

Pust

På det hela taget kändes hela loppet bättre än förra året på alla sätt. Det kändes som om jag hade bättre flyt, vädret var lite bättre och jag hade förstås bättre koll på banan. Därför blev jag lite överraskad av min tid när det visade sig att jag sprang fyra minuter (fem om man går efter den preliminära resultatlistan) långsammare än förra året. Så kan det gå.

Ett mycket trevligt lopp var det i alla fall även denna gång, och jag kan lätt tänka mig att det blir fler Finallopp för mig. Men blir det fler deltagare hoppas jag verkligen att de gör något smart åt starten, det kommer att behövas.

Äntligen fick vi tillbaka den där timmen man stal från oss i våras. Jag tillbringade den på precis rätt sätt: i sängen. Tror det blev strax över tio timmars sömn, utan minsta svårighet.

Nu hasar jag runt likt en lätt ledbruten (efter gårdagens löp- och städinsatser) och skönt såsig zombie, tar slumpmässiga bilder och förbereder frukost.

Jag tog på mig pulsklockan också, av nyfikenhet på min vilopuls. Hittils är 43 den lägsta siffra jag sett.

Vad sade du att klockan var … ?

So, you might ask, how is the rabbid adapting to its new home?

Bunnies do not fear shadows.

Bunnies enjoy company.

Bunnies are not easily cornered.

Bunnies enjoy surprises.

Oh well.

Fortunately, some encounters went a bit better.

Bunnies get along well with pigs.

I knew I would be upgrading, but I did not expect it to be today. And even if I had expected that, I would not have expected it to be this easy. In stock, no line, all in the store a minute's walk from the office. There and back, iPhone 4S in hand, in ten minutes. A little bit too easy, a little bit to low key, to feel quite real.

All I am waiting for now is the actual SIM card to be activated. I wonder if the guy in the store screwed up somehow.

But then, calling is not exactly the main thing I use my phones for. I can bear using my old phone for that just a while longer. I have all this dictation to play with, plus the whole new world that the extra speed and screen sharpness brings.

The mandatory playing with Siri has lived up to the expectations set by others. I was a bit surprised that Siri will not open apps for me, or even show me my location on a map. But I was happy with just how well doing unit and currency conversion (backed by Wolfram alpha) worked. And setting alarms and timers by speaking is somehow … fun.

I asked how much wood a woodchuck would chuck if it could. Not only did Siri provide a good and fun answer, the answer was so instantaneous it felt hard coded somehow. It felt much faster than anything else I asked. No way something that long could have made it to a server, be processed and come back that fast. Siri also answered "correctly" concerning the Answer, but it had to make the roundtrip to mr. Wolfram to fetch it.

Dictation results for text input has been a bit mixed, but it works well enough to excite me as much as Siri on its own. I am not sure why, but the thought of reasonably accurate dictation appeals a lot to me all of a sudden.

I might even stand doing it in public.

Of course, I have snapped a few quick photos as well.

There will be more, oh yes …

It is not easy to stop coding when coding is good.

But I think it is time now.

Fun things can need unwinding from too.

Of course, if this becomes a regular problem, I will be a very happy and lucky man indeed.

Another lunch run coming up tomorrow. It will either confirm I am not falling ill, or bring it on. Ah, clear messages …

This week started pretty slow. I was feeling unexpectedly sleepy for much of the day, finding myself blinking and trying to regain focus a little bit too often. This in addition to (or perhaps because of) my body trying to decide if it is going to get a cold or not made me skip the after work run, instead purchsing a lot of apples and moving right along to dinner.

That seemed to give me a bit of steam back, and all of a sudden I was enjoying myself bending the appearance of OS X user interfaces to my will.

As a bonus activity I brought out the trimmer and shaved some unnecessary millimeters off my haircut. Having the trimmer set to ”thin” instead of ”cut” without noticing gives you a whole lot more time for your money, but the barber did not have much interesting to say so I was all happy when the mistake was discovered and corrected.

Weekend wonders

Swedes my age and somewhat younger may have a relation to the puppet animated TV series Skrotnisse och hans vänner. There is an exhibition running right now featuring this and other works by Jan Lööf, and it is wonderful.

(Although it could
certainly
have been ten times larger
if you ask me
and probably most other kids.)

Yes, I still want a flying lighthouse island on mechanical legs.

As for the cold …

… I am hoping it decides to never really show up, and that it is thanks to me taking it a bit easier. I am willing to invest a few evenings worth of rest in this belief.

Steve Jobs is dead.

I think this is the first time in my adult life that someone who was really iconic to me has passed away.

One of those things which brings mortality a few steps closer.

So, goodbye Steve.
The world feels less interesting without you.
But for a time it had you
and it is better off for it.

Yay for quick evening sketches.