I am doing okay, but I feel like things are all over the place.

Happened

• My foot behaved weirdly. I switched from the medical sturdy sandal to the normal sturdy shoes. My discomfort increased enormously, to the point I would certainly call "pain". But it didn't seem logical to me that my bone healing would take this much of deterioration, that I would need another week in the sturdy sandal. So I made up my own mind again and switched back to the barefoot shoes. Honestly, I feel stiffness in my foot, but this is so much better than the pain in the sturdy shoes. I am now back to treating the discomfort as something I have to push through.
• The second part of the week, therefore, I am actively touching the (in the morning) painful parts of my foot, massaging directly on top of the fracture. It seems to work, at least the morning pain goes away that way. It is scary to play my own doctor and physiotherapist so much, but I since I wasn't really helped by my actual physiotherapist, I feel like I have to just solve it with experimenting and listening to my body.
• Wednesday I went to the Advanced JS meetup in Amsterdam, because Henrique was there too. Saw an interesting talk by Nimo Beeren about AI models you can access via Javascript in Chrome, and one about generics in Typescript by Dillon Parfitt, which made me focus on a bit more on the of any and generics at work the next day. The pizza was also good.
• Thursday was the biweekly (fortnightly?) edition of Boardgayming at NDSM, this time themed "Animals". We played a cute simple card game named Super Kawaii Pets, which I loved because it has the same properties as Regenwormen: your actions matter very much for the other players and there's interaction, but if it's not your turn, you don't have to pay attention, which is great for being social during the game. We also played 9 Lives, which made me think of Cat in the Box, since it's also a cat-themed twist on a normal trick taking card game. This twist is also certainly worth it.
• Youtube recommended me videos about furniture free living, which I think is reasonable now that I saw every barefoot shoe video out there. Since Friday I've been trying to ignore my sofa and just sit on the floor and it's not at all bad. Not removing my sofa from my house yet, but it's an interesting experiment.
• Saturday my (baby) brother held a dinner party since he's now 25. Time flies.
• Sunday I ignored most of the world, since it was the day of the Zevenheuvelenloop running event in Nijmegen, which I was really looking forward to. There is unfortunately just no way I can run 15 kilometer yet. I really hope that after next week, in which I will do a lot of massages, I can finally run 100 meters. We will see.

Played

• Mascarade
• Spots
• Super Kawaii Pets
• 9 Lives
• Exploding Kittens, original + NSFW expansion

Read

• Polysecure by Jessica Fern (I feel I am almost at the point where I stopped last time)

A week of coming back, a bit of setback (foot hurts more than I want) and a lot of reading and thinking, but also a new beginning.

Happened

• On Monday I few back from Gran Canaria to Amsterdam. I wrote a little about how returning to the Netherlands was very alienating to me, probably also because the traveling was really tiring. The days after I tried to recover from it all.
• Thursday I went to Utrecht to go to the barber (yes) and also visited Subcultures again. This resulted in me buying the Mothership RPG box set, for which I didn't really have budget anymore but hey I love it. Especially the Warden's Operation Manual contains good GM advice for pretty much any game, I can see why this won prices. Can't wait to plan a session (it has been too long).
• Friday 1 November I started by new job at Atleta. It was mostly installing the laptop and getting to know the team and codebases and then it was already weekend, but it was a good start. Looking forward to dive in more on Monday.
• Over the week I noticed that every morning, my left (previously broken) foot was hurting. It was fine, as it went away during the day, but by Saturday I noticed that the morning pain did increase. Next week I'm going to make an effort to not walk too much. Mountain climbing on barefoot shoes in Gran Canaria was fun, but maybe not the smartest.
• Saturday I also visited Eindhoven for the belated birthday party of Henrique, which was at an "All you can eat" restaurant. Since Tuesday I also started to track calories and this made that pretty much impossible for Saturday. But it was a lot of fun!
• I started the calorie tracking because I suspected I am probably eating too little again. And indeed: this week I really struggled to hit the calorie counts that my Apple Watch said I burned (bearing in mind that "active energy" and "resting energy" are different metrics which you should add up together). I also noticed that in the beginning of the week, I would feel hungry at around -900 kcal, meaning the moment when I burned 900 kcal more than I ate that day. Later on in the week, I started to get hungry when I hit 0, which feels to me much healthier.
• The other point is that I've been slowly dipping into more and more calisthenics over the past month: I've bought a small notebook and I have been tracking push-ups and other body-weight exercises in it. I can now finally do full push ups: Saturday I did three times three (a month ago I could not do a single one). Eating enough calories and enough protein seems to be important for this. (Thus I should revisit my earlier post about protein chips?)
• Also did some inner searching by starting to read Polysecure by Jessica Fern again. I don't consider myself poly-amorous, but I have been the loose part of other people's non-monogamy. The "secure" part of the title refers to attachment theory, which I delved into a lot in January and February of this year. It's nice to re-read it in the face of my holiday crush and analyze my reaction to that. Maybe I should write a separate blogpost about it, but before that I need to decide how much of it I actually want to share.
• Finally: I reduced my time on Youtube significantly compared to pre-Gran Canaria and I try to keep that and replace it all with reading (and writing) more. Honesty makes me confess though: my Instagram time has a bit of an uptick. Nothing is perfect I guess.

Read

• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (chapters 57-67 on the plane; 68-70 at home)
• Polysecure by Jessica Fern (started again, introduction and chapters 1 and 2)
• Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG: Player's Survival Guide (full) and Warden's Operation Manual (half)

Listened

• a podcast about Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach but I can't remember which episode

Second and last week on Gran Canaria. It’s been nice, with reasonable recovery of my foot, so I have been quite active.

Happened

• As I walked way too much last week, I tried a day at the apartment complex on Monday. I’ve only been out for some groceries and dinner, which I kept close too. Just sitting next to the pool and reading a book is indeed very relaxing. I struggle with it because “I could do this at home” and I could and should, but it was good for my foot and mind to take a break.
• On Tuesday, I finally got the car I reserved way too late. I drove it across the island through the mountains, to a highest point of around 1750 meters, but with a lot of climbing in between. I wrote a long Dutch blogpost about this.
• I also got out halfway to climb up to Roque Nublo. This I did record, so I know I reached the rock in 22 minutes, passing by a lot of families with children. The whole trip is on Strava (which I should still import onto this site).
• Wednesday I still had the car and went to a “Waterfall trail” I found on the internet. Very nice hike with less children, more challenge, but still very doable. I did both of these hikes on the barefoot shoes without the soles in, making me feel every surface along the route, which was very nice, but still with protection from the sharp rocks.
• Thursday was a bit of a rest day. Friday as well: not walking much and trying out the swimming pool, the beach and the weird machines they had at the hotel gym (I discovered the assisted dips machine and it was good).
• Actually, I’ve been working out in that gym every odd day of the holidays. As I said before: after my foot broke, I noticed I had no power in my arms at all. I’m changing that now.
• Saturday I went to the airport to get a new car, and I reserved an Opel Corsa this time, so I would hopefully fit. There was a very long queue in front of the office, which in the end took me 1 hour and 47 minutes to get through. Turns out they were completely overbooked and were just handing cars out as they came in downstairs. I got a much more luxurious SEAT Arona for the same price.
• Saturday, I drove the Arona to the highest peak of the island. It was cloudy and windy, however, so I have not actually been to the highest point: I did not dare to leave the car and there wouldn’t have been anything to see anyway. It was interesting to drive around in the clouds. I also visited Teror, which was cold and reminded me of Dutch summers.
• Sunday I drove around the island, following the eastern road to the north and then back via the highway on the west, back to my apartment in the south. Then after a final visit to the gym, I went through the middle to Fataga for a last hike. The Arona is much too big for my taste, but it was very fast compared to my Volkswagen Up, and the carplay was very pleasant.
• (Writing this on the airport but hey, today is a new week!)

Playlist

Most of these tracks are here because I Shazammed them in a bar. Isabel Pantoja is there twice because of the drag lipsync performance I saw. Japanese 90s was just something I needed.

• Sinceramente - Annalisa
• ZORRA - Nebulossa
• Hoy Quiero Confesarme - Isabel Pantoja
• Marinero de Luces - Isabel Pantoja
• I Will Go With You (Con Te Partiró) - Donna Summer
• ラブ・ストーリーは突然に (Sudden Love Story) - Kazumasa Oda

Read

• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (chapters 37-56, all on the island)

Mijn wekelijkse notities lopen een beetje uit de hand omdat ik er allemaal dingen over autorijden op Gran Canaria in wil zetten, dus hierbij een losse post erover.

Sinds iets meer dan drie jaar heb ik nu een rijbewijs. Het was covid die me over de streep duwde, en sindsdien ben ik van volledig anti-auto opgeschoven naar een hypocriet die wel vindt dat de benzine zo duur mogelijk moet zijn om het te ontmoedigen, maar dan toch bij de Tango staat te tanken.

Ik heb al wel een paar keer een busje gehuurd voor verhuizingen, maar dit was de eerste keer dat ik met een huurauto een vakantieomgeving verken. Stiekem is dat altijd een droom geweest: vroeger hadden we altijd vakantieauto’s en samen met je vriend over een eiland rijden klinkt mij erg romantisch. Bij gebrek daaraan dan maar alleen het eiland verkennen.

De auto

De instapauto die ik bij Cicar kon huren was de Fiat 500. Prima, ik heb zelf een Volkswagen Up en ik hou van kleine auto’s: voelt efficiënt en makkelijker parkeren. Wat ik echter niet had gedacht is dat ik met mijn 2,02 meter niet in een Fiat 500 pas. Gelukkig zat er een dakraam in en vond ik een stand van de stoel, de spiegels en mijn hoofd dat het allemaal net kon, maar super veilig voelde het niet.

De eerste meters waren heel ruw. Zie je wel, dacht ik, had R. toch gelijk toen hij me een beginnende bestuurder noemde. Maar gelukkig wende de koppeling al snel. Ik ben tot twee keer toe een beetje vastgeparkeerd en een paar keer moest ik ergens keren midden op de weg… ik vond zelf dat ik me daar met een soepelheid uitmanoevreerde die verraad dat ik nogal wat kilometers heb gemaakt (meer dan 80k).

Terug naar de veiligheid: ik kwam er op een bepaald moment achter dat ik wel leuk over mijn schouder aan het kijken was bij het afslaan, maar dat de dakstijl middenin mijn dode hoek zat. Met andere woorden: mijn stoel stond zo ver naar achteren dat de rand van de deur precies naast mijn hoofd zat. Een volledige witte Volkswagen Golf verdween in het ding. Sindsdien ben ik steeds maar wat naar voren gegaan tijdens de schouder-check, maar een beetje schrikken was het dus wel.

Het dakraam was trouwens wel heerlijk en eigenlijk geen overbodige luxe voor lange mensen: eindelijk kon ik het stoplicht boven mijn hoofd zien als ik vooraan stond, zonder de lamme nek van helemaal over je stuur moeten buigen. Volume op het stuur ga ik missen, maar dat ik wel een Siri-knopje had, maar toch zelf het dimlicht aan en uit moest zetten vond ik een beetje vreemd.

Ergens was het ook wel een gerustgevende gedachte, zo’n huurauto. Als ik weer ergens totaal verdwaald was, dacht ik: ach, deze Fiat is hier eerder geweest, het komt vast wel goed. Al moet ik zeggen dat hij niet al te veel zelfkennis had: op sommige wegen gaf hij steeds aan dat ik omhoog moest schakelen, om in de hogere versnelling vervolgens langzaam te toeren weg te zien zakken. Nog nooit zo veel beide metertjes gebruikt!

De wegen

Het wende wel, maar het is even wennen, en helemaal gewend ben ik het nog steeds niet. Het Nederlandse verkeersnet heeft zijn eigen “taal van de weg”, zoals mijn rijinstructeur het noemde, en die taal is redelijk consistent en duidelijk. Hier is dat allemaal totaal anders: de vormen van de pijlen, de kleuren van de borden, de voorrangsstrepen. Ik heb nogal oog voor detail en alle details zijn anders hier.

Specifiek de combinatie van rotondes, heuvels en het ontbreken van een telefoonhouder maakte dat ik diverse keren de verkeerde afslag heb genomen. In Nederland zetten we als het even kan op elke windrichting één afslag. Hier zijn er soms een hele kant lang geen en dan drie kort achter elkaar. Pak je de verkeerde? Dan rij je een heuvel op in plaats van af en moet je echt verderop ergens keren anders kom je nooit meer waar je wilde zijn.

Het onderhoud valt me heel erg mee: het zijn mooie wegen en toen ik de eerste dag recht door het eiland stak viel het me op dat de hele GC-60 van mooi nieuw asfalt was voorzien. Natuurlijk, hoe meer je de ‘grote’ wegen af gaat hoe smaller de weggetjes worden, met scherpe bochten en avontuurlijk rijden. Maar ik heb me qua wegkwaliteit nooit onveilig gevoeld.

Wat me ook opviel is dat de afritbordjes die ik uit Duitsland ken hier ook zijn: drie strepen voor 300 meter, twee strepen voor 200, één streep voor 100 en dan is daar de afslag. Als dat inderdaad een onderdeel is van de Europese taal van de weg, vind ik eigenlijk dat we hier een leenwoord van moeten maken.

De regels

Het viel me al op toen ik in de airporttransfer naar mijn appartementje zat: sommige mensen rijden 60 op de snelweg waar je 120 mag. Het is een driebaansweg en ook de bus bleef op de middelste hangen, waarschijnlijk om dit soort idioten te vermijden. Thuis is er de ongeschreven regel dat je altijd de maximumsnelheid plus een beetje rijdt. Ik denk dat je voor 60 op de snelweg ook keihard een boete kan krijgen.

Een ander ding: politieagenten hebben hier altijd blauw licht aan staan, ook als ze geen haast hebben. Dan knippert het niet en is het meer zo van ‘we zijn er hoor’. Ik vond het erg verwarrend. Maar ook: er was een ambulance die daadwerkelijk zwaailicht voerde, dus ik deed mijn best om een beetje aan de kant te gaan, langzamer te gaan rijden, zodat hij er langs kon. Ik bleek te enige te zijn, zelfs de ambulance leek niet te anticiperen dat-ie er langs kon, wat voor mij een beetje een gevaarlijke situatie veroorzaakte. Note to self: negeer alle blauwe lichten hier.

En er was ergens een rood licht waar ik rechts wilde. Erboven was een extra lamp met een flitsende oranje pijl naar rechts. Meerdere auto’s haalden me in en gingen rechts, gewoon door rood, wat mij het vermoeden gaf dat dat de bedoeling was? Note to self: negeer ook alle rode lichten als er een oranje pijl knippert.

En dan de snelheidslimiet nog een keer. Ik ben gewend aan de standen die we in Nederland kennen. Hier is het een onaflatende afwisseling van 40 naar 30 naar 40 naar 20 naar 40 naar 60 naar 80. Ik geloof dat ik beter de tientallen op kan noemen die ik niet op een bordje heb zien staan: 10, 90 en 110. Note to self: laat de bordjes los en rij wat goed voelt.

Alvast sorry voor iedereen die ik straks in Nederland op de weg tegenkom.

It's week 10 and I ran again, for a very short distance but still. In the beginning of the week there was pain every morning, which I could get rid of by massaging and stretching, but at the end my foot feels mostly fine.

Happened

• On Monday I visited the physiotherapist again. He was 15 minutes late, yet ended our session at the normal time. He placed two tapes on my foot and gave me a new exercise. I really don't believe the tape helps at all, which means I also won't get the placebo effect from it, so when he said to schedule a new appointment in three weeks I just didn't. I'll massage and feel my way out of this myself.
• Improvisation class is still going on every Tuesday evening. Last week I totally locked down during an exercise where we had to interrupt someone else's monologue by repeating two of their words and starting our own monologue. I just couldn't find good spots to interrupt, and when there was one, I was thinking too deep about it and therefore missed my chances. This week there was an exercise where there would be two characters on stage, but four performers, who would swap roles on the cues "inside" and "outside". It went great. Last week I felt very stupid, this week I felt like I could actually learn this improv thing.
• Wednesday I first visited the Miró exposition in Beelden aan Zee with my stepmom and then visited by dad together. When having coffee at the museum we sat at the exact spot where I sad with my dad for (I believe) the last time we went to a museum together. Apart from the emotional undertone it's a nice museum with interesting sculptures.
• Wednesday I also noticed how the balance of my left foot improved, so I tested it. It was very boring, but I made it to 7:35 minutes on my previously broken foot. There is still soreness every morning but we're getting closer and closer to being healed fully.
• Also started walking a lot more this week, by just going for walks, by walking parts of routes I would've cycled (if I had the time) and by getting off one or two metro stations earlier and walk the last bit. The vast majority of these walks are on barefoot shoes, as I really exclusively wear those, but since this week I also have a pair of the Altra Escalante shoes, which are basically barefoot shoes (wide toe box, zero drop), but with cushioning, to make some of the walks easier.
• Friday and Saturday there were boardgames: Friday evening there was a boardgame evening at work, also functioning partly as my goodbye, and Saturday I went to the Boardgayming XL event. I played Tokyo Highway at both of them, but also others: there is again a small list of games below this post.
• Saturday evening A. and I were trying to catch the metro, so I ran 50 meters to still get it. It went well, and I don't think it was too risky: I had the cushioned Altra shoes on and I did not go all out. Also: 50 meters is very manageable. I will try more walks next week, and maybe 100 meters running?

Played

• Codenames: Pictures
• Perudo
• Regenwormen
• Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City
• Eternitium
• Let's Call the Exorcist
• Speculaas
• The Dick Sits
• For the Queen

Watched

• House of Cards (rewatching)

Henrique is forcing me into participating in this collective blogging event called the "IndieWeb Carnival", this time hosted by ZinRicky. This month's topic is "Multilingualism in a Global Web", but I'll just write a bit about my own use of different languages on this site and on social media.

Let's start with the languages I speak. I am native Dutch and I am fairly fluent in English. I also understand some Japanese as I have been self studying on and off for over 15 years now. According to my middle school diploma I also know French and German, and I indeed proved to be able to have some basic conversations in Essen this weekend, but my French is really a withered plant at the moment. I did a Swedish course for beginners around 2011 and even though I still know some words, sentences and intonations, I have just removed it from my LinkedIn profile because a recruiter reached out to me regarding a Swedish speaking job offer I am neither interested in nor qualified for. I also have Duolingo "my cat is an apple" proficiency in Spanish, Italian, Ukrainian and Russian. On parties without too many language nerds I dare to say "name any language and I'll know a fact about it," because this is true for most languages normal people would mention.

Then about this blog: I started writing exclusively in Dutch, as that is my native language. When I "joined" the IndieWeb, I started writing posts that were relevant to an IndieWeb audience in English, as I knew only one person on the IndieWeb who understood Dutch at the time. Since I broke my foot 9 weeks ago, I started weekly notes and somehow I started those in English (probably mostly because the week notes I read in my RSS reader are all in English too, so it felt part of the genre.)

Thus, previously I had the distinction "IndieWeb is English, rest is Dutch", then it moved to "personal is Dutch, rest is English", but now I also gone away with that. I guess it's now just "however I feel like it". There is also the thing that I care less about the audience for my Dutch posts, so maybe I write English for others and Dutch for myself?

As for social media: I have separate Dutch and English Twitter accounts, both being inactive due to someone buying the platform. I also have a "Seb leert Zweeds" account, on which I posted short and badly written Swedish tweets back in the day. The Twitter distinction of Dutch and English was also: Dutch for random thoughts, personal stuff, English for being professional, following mostly web developers and tech accounts.

I don't know exactly what to say about multilingualism on the bigger web. I read whatever I can read, which comes down to both Dutch and English (Japanese is already too hard to read if it's not on NHK News Web Easy). I sometimes write my posts in Dutch with the idea that people who are interested will use a translator app, but I am also aware that I never really do that when I read myself.

I do mark all my posts with a language, so that they show up in the proper feeds. People can therefore subscribe to only my English posts and skip the Dutch. This would've made more sense if I was more strict about the topic within each language, I assume, but hey I am not writing this for money... this is a personal blog.

This week I went to Essen, so my "Played" list is a bit out of proportion.

Happened

• As I posted last week's update on Monday, and as I was reading back on my notes, I saw the progress I made and decided to go in deep with a foot massage and explore my painful and tight spots. This resulted in a huge improvement in the overall stiffness of my foot, and therefore also in how I walk (maybe not the visible part, but certainly the feeling of it).
• Monday I also went shopping a bit for Altra shoes. These are running shoes, so they have cushioning, but also a feature the wider toebox with extra space for the big toe. I did not end up buying any, for they didn't have my size and I feel like I am spending a bit too much on my foot. Also: I don't think I am able to run yet, these would be for a bit more stabilization of the foot.
• So instead of getting new ones, I wore my old running shoes (the Asics GT-2000 8) for a few normal walks this week. I always size my running shoes a bit bigger (this one is 47) and that also gives a bit more room to the toes. I really want to get rid of the soreness in my left foot and I think stepping back to a bit more support really helped too. I just really value the effect barefoot shoes have on my big toes, so I don't want to wear too restrictive footwear anymore.
• From Thursday to Sunday I went to Spiel in Essen with A., and we played a lot of games, see the list below. My foot went well: I had a different pair of more sturdier shoes with me just in case, and I used those on the first day, but all the other days I wore barefoot shoes all day long and without noticeable pains. I even think the pains I had are much less now, thanks to the massaging.

Played

• Catan: kaartspel voor twee spelers, with Tovenaars en draken expansion – played this in the hotel after I found a copy with all expansions in a local thrift store for €2.50... worth at least 10 times as much.
• Command of Nature – also in the hotel before going to Spiel.
• Kluster – nice game of placing magnets in a circle until they cluster; part of the collection at the Boardgayming Amsterdam stand which we crashed after a day of walking through all the six halls of the Essen Messe.
• Tiny Epic Galaxies – also a staple old staple of A. and me, played at the Boardgayming stand.
• Open Season – a game where you try to hang heads of fantasy races on the wall, each position giving you a special kind of scoring. Reasonable mechanics, questionable theme.
• Eternitium (bought) – certainly a highlight: small and fast deck building game with beautiful artwork, in which you are time travelers trying to find a magic crystal.
• Valroc – much bigger game by the same creator as the above, but this one did not work for me. Too big, and it all felt a bit disconnected, combined with a rather thing story and a draft phase which we skipped in the demo but turned out to be unrecoverable important.
• Dungeon Legends – A. almost bought it but it was sold out. Bit of a tower defense game but with a more dungeon crawler feel to it, also with a bit of deck building. Comes in five (?) different scenarios you can play.
• Hidden Leaders Duel (playtest) – this game actually does not "exist" yet, as it was invented by my old coworker Michiel de Wit, who is now the publisher of the Dutch version of Hidden Leaders. It worked, but only after the game I understood how. (Can also blame the noisy environment for that.)
• Aeon's End: The New Age – we played the German version, with Germans, but they were kind enough to translate along the way. Nevertheless this was quite incomprehensible to me. We were all together trying to defeat a monster, playing cards to cast spells, buying new cards, opening bridges to be able to play more spells... but most of all we put a lot of maggots and flies on a board and that eventually killed us.
• Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City (bought) – after all these weird fantasy games I wanted some time to explore for myself and in the corner with Japanese games I found this lovely game where you are trying to create a highway by carefully placing wooden sticks on wooden blocks, topping them off with cute tiny rubber cars. The end result of the game looks amazingly complicated, how did we get here?
• (I also bought Scout in this corner, but I already played it before...)
• Linx – cute little game that one of the Swiss people pulled out of her bag while waiting for Tokyo Highway to begin. A mixture of rock-paper-scissors and tic-tac-toe. We did not finish it though.
• The Dick Sits – Adrian Collier's new game of which I am a Kickstarted backer. Also seen many iterations of it while playtesting at the Boardgayming evenings, but I really like the final version. Seeing friends explain this game to straight people was a new experience though.
• The Dragon Prince: Battlecharged – this one was also in the corner of the The Dick Sits stand that was reserved for the Boardgayming in Amsterdam community. (I think A. and I were the only ones who used it to play a non-Dick Sits game?) Unfinished game, because it was the end of the day and we were (rightfully) thrown out.
• The Flames of Fafnir – A. really really wanted to play this one. It is even more of a tower defense game, with the giant dragon Fafnir breathing fire in the form of orange marbles that are actually rolled across the board to knock over the miniature heroes and the obstacles that they place.
• Whoosh: Bounty Hunters – weird little game in which you turn over cards with icons of swords, bows, fire, ice etc., and must place your hand on one of the monster cards in the middle if it can be beaten by the matching icons that are currently visible. Not my type of game, but interesting fantasy twist in the genre.
• Go – I was watching a beginner game at the Go stand (both the beginner and the instructor made very weird moves... the instructor even claiming a false victory because there was a move that saved the beginner), when I was greeted by a familiar face – I think from a tournament in Bonn – so we played a quick game on a 13-by-13 board. It came down to komi, which we did not agree on beforehand, so we waived the result away. As I said to him: I should play more Go again.
• Die Patin (almost bought) – a maffia game but you're all animals, trying to control territory in a city by placing mobsters on street corners, while also opening back shops. It has interesting mechanics, including the fact that you can only score by having the biggest of something in one round per game, which makes all players pursue different goals each round. While writing this I am actually sad that A. talked me out of buying this one.
• Gnome Hollow (bought instead) – a cute game in which you are gnomes, trying to create paths (in a Carcassonne style) and collect the mushrooms along those paths, trading them for trinkets while planting flowers. Got less wholesome when A. denied two other players an addition to our shared path, turning it a bit more cutthroat, but thanks to some nice combo's I won anyway.
• Cloudy Kingdom – by a Dutch creator named Wouter, in which you place cards with crossroads (bit Saboteur-like) to connect your two castles, while denying other player's connections.
• Royale: Party at Louis' – by another Dutch creator also named Wouter, where you pick up sets of three cards (from a deck numbered 1 to 12 in different colors / dishes), and try to distribute them among nobles who are eating very specific diets ("give me only odd numbers of chicken", "give me any dish, but with a total value of 25").
• EOS: Island of Angles – a very big game to which A. made an appointment to play, but I am glad he did, because this was my favorite of the big games we played. It's an asymmetrical game (each player has their own set of actions they can take, which are different form the other players), where you are trying to sail towards angels, and win them over in order to fight the demons who are causing trouble. I had my main mechanic (both playing cards from my hand, as well as moving a bit faster than others) blocked for most part of the game, but I still managed to finish second after the instructor, who said she hadn't played on Spiel herself yet, and who did not hold back at all.
• Shogi – A. is a chess player, so I wanted to play the Japanese version of it with him. Of course he won easy, even in the strangeness of promotion and bringing back pieces to the board.
• Choconnect – interesting little four-in-a-row, except that there are three types of chocolate: with decorations of three, four and five, indicating how many in a row you need to win. And also: you slide chocolate in from the side.
• (Apart from this list, I also bought the RPG rulebooks for Thirsty Sword Lesbians and Death in Space.)

Oops, weeknotes, one day too late! This week I was in full revalidation mode, meaning: trying to go through all the pains. Where this previously resulted in less pain, this week it seems like there is no progress. I did however become stronger, I think, and that's also worth something.

Happened

• Monday I went to a physiotherapist after I promised someone at G.'s birthday party that I would do so. He taped my foot to improve walking in a more natural way, and he gave me some exercises. I've been my own physiotherapist up until now, guided by attention to pain and Youtube, but it doesn't hurt to ask a profesional.
• Tuesday I signed a contract for a new job. This means I'll start at Atleta in November, and I'll be taking a little vacation in the end of October. Hope my foot is healed enough for me to make it a bit more of an active holiday.
• My third Improvisation class went rough this time (in my experience, it was probably fine). It seems to me that I have a goal (not blocking, just flowing along) and I did block a lot when I had to play a scene. But maybe the fact that I have a goal is part of the blocking? This is not easy.
• I watched the rest of The Boyfriend, the Japanese gay dating show and it left a big impression on me. Both the way the participants talked about being gay (in Japan) as well as the way they were trying to convey their feelings to each other. Maybe I should also try again.
• My mom visited me on Thursday, for the first time since I live here in Amsterdam. Or well, she was here when I got the keys, but that's not the same. It was nice to show her the house but also a bit confrontational to see how much needs to be done in the house after more than a year of living here.
• I posted a bit about walking in barefoot shoes, but I've also started to train other muscles in my body. I guess the rehabilitation process after the broken foot makes me more aware of my body in general. I've found the term "calisthenics", through which I found all kinds of variations on body weight exercises which I can actually perform. Because: when I was on crutches, I noticed my arms could not support my body weight at all. My goal is to change that, and it's already improving. (I'm writing down all progress in a small physical notebook.)
• Sunday I finally played Frosthaven again. Getting adults into the same room to play a session within a campaign based board game is so hard. The next one will probably be in december, given all our calendars. But it was a good one: we were not crazy tired after the one scenario and opted for Munchkin instead of a second scenario, to keep that feeling.

Played

• Codenames: Deep Undercover (the adult version)
• Frosthaven
• Munchkin Bites! (a vampire themed version)

Watched

• The Boyfriend, episode 5-10
• Thermae Romae Novae (anime about a Roman architect who repeatedly gets transported to Japan while submerged in baths, learning and comparing the Japanese onsen culture to the Roman one. Certainly one of the craziest anime series I have seen)

Bijna acht weken geleden brak ik de zijkant van mijn voet. Om preciezer te zijn: ik brak de vijfde metatarsis van mijn linkervoet. Sindsdien blog ik hier elke week over de voortgang, en als ik toch bezig ben ook over andere dingen die die week gebeurd zijn.

De eerste week heb ik met een been in het gips gezeten. Volledige immobilisatie heet dat geloof ik. Gelukkig mocht ik na die week al gelijk "de maffe sandaal" aan, wat dus een compleet a-modieuze, volledig symmetrische sandaal is, die zo dik is dat het onmogelijk is om af te wikkelen tijdens het lopen. Niet dat ik de eerste weken vooruit kwam zonder krukken, maar gaandeweg werd ik steeds beter.

Vanaf week 4 mocht ik proberen een stevige schoen te dragen in plaats van de maffe sandaal. Ik heb dat niet direct gedaan, maar vanaf dit punt ben ik ook wat meer op blote voeten door het huis gaan proberen te lopen. Toen ik eindelijk een beetje schoenen aan durfde merkte ik dat ik veel meer pijn had in de stevige schoenen dan ik had op blote voeten, omdat er dus allemaal drukpunten in zaten. Sommige schoenen kreeg ik niet eens aan.

Barefootschoenen

Al in september 2016 zat ik tegen mijn zin in bij de huisarts voor een brandwondenzalfje. Tegen mijn zin, want ik had het zelf gedaan: ik was 2,64 km zonder schoenen aan gaan hardlopen. Bij het schrijven hiervan schrik ik er zelf van hoe ver ik ben gekomen. "Wat een complete idioot ben je", zeg ik hier net hardop.

Waarom? Omdat ik hardloopverslaafd was en ik in die tijd veel hoorde over "barefoot running" en "barefoot shoes". Bovendien had ik last van mijn achillespees en ik merkte dat ik dat op blote voeten niet had dus hopla, daar ging ik. ik herinner me dus dat ik pas stopte toen ik zag dat mijn kleine teen aan het bloeden was.

Sindsdien heb ik het nooit meer gedurfd, maar eens in de zoveel tijd dacht ik dus weer aan barefoot shoes en hoe dat waarschijnlijk beter zou zijn. Maar ja, bijvoorbeeld in de tijd dat ik bij Sneaker District werkte heb ik nogal wat sneakers verzameld, daar kon ik niet opeens aankomen met deze supermaffe schoenen.

Nu ik echter toch volledig opnieuw moet leren lopen, heb ik de stap gewaagd en draag ik nu uitsluitend nog Vivobarefoot Primus Lite schoenen.

Wat is een barefootschoen?

In principe zijn het zeer minimalistische schoenen, die voelen alsof je op blote voeten loopt. Drie belangrijke eigenschappen daarbij zijn: minimale zolen, zero drop en een wijde teenruimte.

De minimale zolen zorgen ervoor dat je erg veel contact hebt met de grond. Tijdens het winkelen voel ik of een winkel vloerbedekking heeft, maar ook voel ik de individuele klinkers in de winkelstraat als ze wat schever staan. De echt kleine steentjes en glassplinters voel ik gelukkig niet, maar er is zeker veel grondcontact.

De zero drop verwijst naar het verschil in hoogte tussen de voorvoet en de achtervoet. In veel sneakers zit daar 8 tot 10 mm verschil in, een erfenis uit hun geschiedenis als jogging schoenen. Als je echter de hele dag op een dergelijke 8mm drop staat, worden je kuitspieren, die minder te doen hebben, lui en korter (aldus de barefoot community).

Tot slot de wijde teenruimte: veel schoenen hebben een symmetrische voorkant, in de vorm van een boog of een punt. Onze voeten zijn echter niet symmetrisch, rond noch puntig: de grote teen is groter dan de kleine teen. Een goede barefootschoen geeft ruimte aan de grote teen, zodat deze weer recht kan komen te staan.

Nu al andere tenen

Want ja, mijn tenen stonden een beetje krom na al die jaren in traditionele schoenen. De drie middelste tenen van mijn linkervoet passen precies in elkaar, ze zijn elkaars negatieve vormen. De eerste keer dat ik dat opmerkte vond ik dat logisch, maar sinds ik van het bestaan van barefootschoenen weet vind ik het eigenlijk maar onnatuurlijk. Ook mijn grote teen staat enigszins naar binnen gedrukt, terwijl de natuurlijke positie is dat hij naar voren steekt.

En nu ik nieuwe schoenen heb zie ik mijn voeten veranderen. Mijn linkervoet ligt een maandje voor op mijn rechtervoet, omdat die natuurlijk al een tijdje in de maffe sandaal zat. Ik zie daar duidelijk dat mijn grote teen al veel rechter naar voren wijst. Ik zal jullie de foto's besparen, maar ik heb ze, en het is shocking hoe veel gezonder ik mijn voeten na één en twee maanden eruit vind zien.

Ik ben maar gelijk all-the-way gegaan en heb ook teensokken. Individueel geteende sokken. Het is net iets meer moeite met aan en uittrekken (verwaarloosbaar hoor), maar ik merk dat ik veel minder zweterige tenen eraan overhou.

Opnieuw leren lopen

Ik moet heel eerlijk zijn dat ik nog steeds wel wat pijn ervaar ik mijn linkervoet. Deze filterdunne schoenen voldoen natuurlijk totaal niet aan het medisch advies van "stevige schoenen". Ik probeer te compenseren door gewoon niet al te veel te lopen. (Al gaat dat ook niet altijd even goed, want ik wil toch naar plekken toe.)

Er zijn meerdere soorten pijntjes. Ook mijn rechtervoet heeft het er af en toe moeilijk mee als ik een eindje loop en we komen een marmere ondergrond tegen of iets anders ontzettend rechts en hards. Maar gaandeweg train ik de spieren in mijn voeten en ik denk eigenlijk dat ik niet echt meer terug wil.

Ik heb het idee dat ik meer lange mensen tegen kom dan eerst, maar telkens als ik denk: die is ook lang, dan denk ik daarna: ja maar, ik sta hier vrijwel direct op de grond, en hij is rustig vier centimeter aan het valsspelen met zijn sneakers. Ik ben ook maar gelijk overgestapt tegen mensen te zeggen dat ik 2,02 meter ben, in plaats van 2,03.

Dat laatste zou ik trouwens nog eens moeten meten, want ik heb ook het idee dat ik dankzij de zero drop nu ook minder mijn bekken kantel, waardoor mijn rug rechter is, mijn schouders beter naar achter, etc. Het zou best kunnen dat ik die ene centimeter dan weer inhaal?

Raad je dit aan?

Ik weet het niet. Ik ben zelf helemaal om en ik denk niet dat ik nog terug wil naar opgepropte tenen en op centimeters schuimplastic rondlopen. Misschien hooguit voor een feestje als ik weet dat mensen daar sneakers waarderen. Sowieso zou ik nooit meer auto durven rijden met een dikke zool tussen mij en de pedalen.

Maar is het voor iedereen? Het is anders, je moet er echt op oefenen, en uiteindelijk is het beter voor je, denk ik wel echt, maar met de rest van de maatschappij meegaan heeft ook zo z'n voordelen.

O, en hardlopen op deze dingen heb ik ook nog niet gedaan. Ik heb nog veel te trainen voor ik daar ben.

After reading the first chapter of The Organized Mind last week, I felt like I was working on reducing chaos in my life. This week turned out to be much more chaotic. Imagining a week doesn’t make it necessarily so.

Happened

• Tuesday I brought my car to the planned service, finally, as it got moved because of my broken foot. It was a “groot onderhoud”, so I was expecting a big bill, but I was really shocked by the price of the new tires. With €1022 this is the biggest car bill I ever paid, apart from the purchase. My Volkswagen Up is one of the cheaper options, but it still made me rethink the whole concept of car ownership. Might blog about this.
• Improv got cancelled this week, so I went to Prik for Boardgayming for a full night of games. It was a lot of fun, see the list below.
• As the car got service in Amsterdam West, due to scheduling, I arranged an ebike as alternative transport. I have mixed feelings about driving an ebike in Amsterdam, which I should probably explain in a separate blogpost, but my biggest problem: the rental company had screwed in the board computer, so I couldn’t remove it, but someone on the streets of Amsterdam just pulled until it got loose, leaving me with a heavy bike without any e- anymore.
• Thursday evening there were even more boardgames. The Boardgayming event is not as big on Thursday as it is on Tuesday, but I still have hopes that it will improve a bit now that the summer is over and the Prik edition is sold out in no time every week.
• Friday I tried to find a forest to walk a bit with my new barefoot shoes on. It was really nice, you really feel the forest ground through the shoes and feel really connected to the soil. I did two walks of 1 kilometer ... anything more than that felt unsafe, as I am still recovering and you never know if you spot a wolf.
• The weekend had parties, which went well, considering my feet. Needed to sit a few times, had to be careful about other people not stepping on my foot, and only did some rudimentary dancing, but still, it was nice to be out again.
• Visited dad both Tuesday and Sunday. Tuesday ended a bit stressful, but by Sunday he seemed better again.

  Played

• Soggy Biscuits (prototype of the new game by Adrian Collier)
• Ca$h 'n Guns: Second Edition (cool bluffing game with actual foam guns)
• Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza (gorilla!)
• Cheese Thief (super fast social deduction, modern classic)
• Mountain Goats (interesting, but I suck at it because I can't do math that fast)
• Curios (easy and quick game, nice starter)
• Feed The Kraken (similar to Secret Hitler, but with an interesting two-way policy selectore)

  Listened

• “Cars are (REALLY) expensive!” episode of The Urbanist Agenda podcast

  Watched

• The Godfather (1972)
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)