Hello, world. I’m MacDara Conroy, and this is my blog.


Weeknotes #785-787

It’s been a productive September on the writing front, with seven (and a bit) film reviews under my belt so far. There’s bit of a breather for the next few days, as I don’t have any press shows on my calendar till the end of next week, but I have got a couple of screeners to watch this weekend, for which I’ll have my little notebook ready.

I wish I could say I was back on top of my music writing in the same vein, but alas. Best not to say any more about that till I have the results to show.

As far as the day job goes — it’s the day job. The stories might be different, but the structure is pretty much the same week in, week out; unremarkable for the most part. Yesterday was different for two reasons, one being that I spent the best part of the day figuring out a complicated page layout that I just couldn’t get my head around; the only thing that worked was simply slapping all the required page furniture down and mushing it around till it looked vaguely pleasing to the eye.

The other was a weird bug with InDesign that I’ve run into once before, and thought I’d blogged about here, but it seems I didn’t (I certainly didn’t tag it) so I might as well do it now.

I was attempting to resize some text, as you do, when I found the up/down arrows beside the Text Size box were greyed out. I closed the file and reopened; same problem. I restarted the app; same problem. I rebooted the computer and restarted the app; same problem. In the middle of all this, I had a familiar feeling, and after a little googling I came upon this solution on the Abode forum, followed the instructions to the letter and voila, working Text Size arrows. Sometimes work means problem solving so the rest of your time doesn’t make the problem worse. Yesterday was one of those days.

That’s enough about work. How about life? Well, I’ve had a bad summer for weight management, as has been the pattern for a couple of years now. It seems more daylight doesn’t induce greater physical activity when it’s either a) too sunny and/or humid to move, or b) too wet to leave the house. Couple that with a poor headspace and it’s not a recipe for success.

But hey, a new season (even if said season started in August) means rededication to the plan. I’ve dropped poundage or broken even for the last three weigh-ins, and I’m back to the weight I was eight weeks ago. Next will be to get back to where I was nine week before that, at the start of the summer, which was my best for the year, and keep it going from there.

Walking is helping, for the weight and my headspace. Sometimes it’s just too damn windy to get out on my bicycle for my preferred part-coastal route. Walking is the better option there; the wind adds useful resistance. But over the summer I’d been without a proper pair of walking shoes, since my last Nikes bit the dust. They were doing double-duty as my everyday shoes, to be fair. Now, though, I’ve got my newish everyday shoes, the Chuck Taylors that I’ve finally broken in, and a new pair of trainers I picked up in Lidl for just €20.

Lidl’s Crivit range has a solid reputation, and so far these runners are no exception: comfortable from the off, and little to no blistering of my feet from lengthy walks (around 8km) on sometimes uneven paths. I’m not expecting miracle shoes, mind you; for €20 I don’t expect them to last more than a few months, till our next trip to the factory shop. But right now, I’m pleased.