Week commencing Monday, 9 February 2026
Quantified Self
- This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 15/7. (71%). Morning walks: 0/4. Office days 1/5. Total steps: 38,516. 11.8 hours in meetings.
Life
- I think I “vibe coded” this week. At least, I rambled into an AI assistant chatbot thing and ended up with working software.
- Related, the post I wrote about the experience must have partly been inspired by watching that programme about Pompeii.
- And no, the name Algorithmus wasn’t mine. I asked an AI, which came up with far more detail than I wanted: “Instead of a lightning bolt, he carries the Monolith—a perfectly smooth, black slab of obsidian that reflects the viewer’s soul back at them (while recording the data)”.
- Research by Clarion Security Systems estimates that more than 942,000 CCTV cameras operate across London. Smile, you’re on camera.
- Related, I learned that AI-powered emotion analytics software, which is supposed to be able to tell if you’re having a bad day at work, is an industry valued at approximately $9.13 billion. Keep smiling, the camera’s judging you.
- I’ve not yet completed 2025’s yearnotes, but I did the annual book photo. My previous yearnotes can be read here if you’re wondering what I am on about.
- And concrete lovers are rejoicing, as the 1960s Southbank Centre, which includes the Hayward Gallery, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall and skatepark undercroft, has been Grade II listed.
- The King’s Head Theatre is no longer in the King’s Head pub. But we still saw Already Perfect, the autobiographical musical written by and starring Levi Kreis. His life, growing up in rural Tennessee, enduring six years of conversion therapy, being expelled from a Christian university and later working as an escort in Los Angeles, is a million miles from my own. It’s heavy in places.
- Thursday, to the pub. An evening of putting the world to rights and a relatively civilised departure. On the way back, I remembered to pick up a copy of The Evening Standard for PY.
- Saturday, lovely food to celebrate the Lunar New Year: various dumplings and buns, and a hot pot brought to the table for us all to help ourselves. It was a very pleasant evening, although poor W spent most of the time in the kitchen.
- Sunday, I was planning to tidy and decided to start with a box of old photographs. That morphed into a day of scanning and organising pictures so that I could get rid of the physical prints and free up some space.
- Since we were out on Saturday night, we decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day today with a delivery from Sticks’n’Sushi. At £82, it’s not cheap, but it is some of the best restaurant sushi I’ve had.
Media
- On Tuesday night, we ended up watching (most of) The Truman Show. It is interesting how clearly it predicted the world that followed. In 1998, when it was released, “reality TV” was still new, and the idea of being constantly watched felt dystopian rather than aspirational. Now, every influencer is Meryl, delivering product placements directly to the camera.
- On the train home on Thursday, I resumed the Game Changers Radio podcast and learned more about Brisbane radio than I strictly need to know.
- Lots of Winter Olympics coverage watched: Friday, I didn’t understand the description of any of the Snowboard Half-Pipe final, but the commentators were infectious, and the excitement was incredible. I could have watched all night.
- Sunday, we watched Team GB make history by winning two Winter Olympic titles on the same day for the first time, as Matt Weston and Tabitha Stoecker clinched mixed team skeleton and Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale won snowboard cross gold.
- And our men’s curlers suffered their second defeat but, hopefully, remain on course for a semi-final place, with an extra-end loss to Switzerland.