dangermouse.net – Page 2 – David Morgan-Mar

A mysterious restless night

Last night was very restless. In fact, it’s the third night in a row I’ve had little sleep. Something is keeping Scully awake and alert all night. Normally she sleeps like a log from bed time to after we get up. But these past nights she’s been sitting up alert, and wanting to constantly get off the bed and go out to the lounge room, and then she comes back in again, and repeats the cycle, all through the night.

I know she hates the high-pitched buzz of mosquitoes, but we’ve sprayed and sprayed and I’m sure there are none of those because normally they bite me and I really notice it. I suspect that someone in our apartment building might have a new appliance or something that is running through the night and making a high-pitched sound that Scully can hear.

When the sun came up (I’d been awake since about 2am), I emailed someone on the building strata committee to ask if any equipment had been installed or updated in the building that might be responsible. I thought maybe perhaps an ultrasonic pest repellent device or something. But the response came back negative – no electrical work of any kind in the past week.

While lying awake in the night, in the quietest moments I thought I could maybe hear some rhythmic beeping, just at the edge of my hearing. I’m not sure if it was real, or if I was imagining it. But I think I’ve heard it the past couple of nights, and had never heard it before. But I can’t be sure. I’m aware that dogs have much more sensitive ears and can hear higher pitched sounds than humans can, so even if I’m wrong it could still be something like this.

We may have to write a letter and copy it to all our neighbours in the building to try to find out if anyone has recently acquired a new electrical device that could be causing a noise that Scully can hear.

The other alternative is that it might be something wrong with Scully. But otherwise her behaviour seems normal. During the day and when out on walks she seems fine. I took her on a very long walk today to try and tire her out so she’ll sleep through tonight. Hopefully, otherwise tomorrow I’m going to be a right wreck if I don’t get a decent sleep again.

Despite being tired all day, I did a new Darths & Droids strip. I had some time in the afternoon to do other things, but didn’t get much done because of the tiredness.

New content today:

South Head and Hornby Lighthouse

This morning I had another free morning, like last week, because my wife too Scully to work and I’d done my ethics lesson plan. The weather was glum and cold, and I decided to take a drive out to South Head and do a bit of walking around there.

It wasn’t rainy when I departed, but by the time I got there there was squally light rain. I drove around some back streets for a bit, hoping the rain would pass. It got a bit lighter and I found a car park near the National Park to set out on the short walking track to Hornby Lighthouse.

I started at Camp Cove:

Canons were placed here to defend Sydney Harbour from attacking ships. Some of them are still here.

The rain sputtered out and I got a half decent view across the harbour towards the city:

I saw this magnificent red gum tree, the colours of the bark enhanced by the rain:

Before the lighthouse was the old lighthouse keeper’s cottage:

And then the lighthouse itself:

After returning to the car I found a cafe not far away to have an early lunch. And then I looked for a bakery to find something sweet to have after that, and found a place called Lil’ Mix in Rose Bay. They had amazing looking cookies and I bought three of the different flavours, plus a Jerusalem bagel which I took back to my wife’s work to give her for a surprise lunch treat when I picked up Scully.

I’ve just had the chocolate and salted caramel cookie and it was amazing…

This afternoon I rested up a bit before tonight’s ethics class. I made okonomiyaki for dinner.

New content today:

Hot and busy time passing

Today was very warm, close to 30°C. But I spent most of it inside doing my Monday classes online, ending the topic of “Time Passing”. I started work on planning for the next topic, which is “Copying Things”, covering aspects of copyright, intellectual property, and so on.

The weather tomorrow is set to be much cooler, with a forecast maximum of only 19°C. It may be another day like we had a week or two ago, where the maximum temperature was set at midnight.

In the afternoon I went for a walk with my wife (who was home from work for the Labour Day public holiday) and Scully. And then I made listings on eBay for some more of my 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons books that I don’t want any more. If you’re interested and in Australia, these may be a bargain for you to pick up (if you’re overseas the postage will probably be prohibitive):

My last class tonight started at 9pm, but because of daylight saving starting here it’s an hour earlier for all the students, including one in the USA who had it move from 7am to 6am. He was dedicated enough to get up early for it, but was yawning a bit. All my other classes I made an hour later (for me), to keep them at the same time for the students, but this one I really didn’t want to move to a 10pm start – I’d be turning into a pumpkin before it ended at 11pm. Unfortunately it’s going to get even worse for this kid in November when the US goes off daylight saving, and the class becomes a 5am start for him. I suspect he won’t keep doing it after that.

Finally, a weird thing I noticed taking photos of my D&D books for eBay. I’m using my brand new iPhone 16 and taking photos saved in HEIF format. Some of the photos when I open them in Photoshop, I hit save and it allows me to save them as a JPEG. But some of the photos I hit save and it has a restricted set of save formats available, excluding JPEG. I have to use “Save a copy” to create a copy of the image before I can save it as JPEG. I suspected it might be because the iPhone camera was automatically using HDR mode for some photos and saving them in a higher bit-depth or a different colour space or something, but examining the HEIC files shows no such differences – they’re all 8-bit colour in Display P3 colour space. I examined the EXIF tags of the images and I don’t see any salient differences at all.

So I have no idea why some of these images Photoshop will allow me to save as JPEGs and some it won’t. I tried searching briefly for an answer online, but my search terms couldn’t locate anything relevant.

New content today:

A so-so bakery

Today daylight saving started here. I was hoping to sleep in to catch up on sleep as during the week I’d had several interrupted sleeps. But Scully decided to defy her usual habit of sleeping until we get up and wanted to get up before 7am (which felt like 6am because of losing the hour to the DST change). So I had to get up and after a while take her outside for a walk. So I was pretty tired today.

I did my 5k run though, nice and early, which was actually a good thing as it was warm and heating up quickly to a maximum around 30°C.

We went out for some afternoon tea, driving to a bakery a couple of suburbs away. I’d been there once before to try their pies, and thought they were pretty average. But now we were trying sweets: I had a slice of almond orange cake, and my wife had a date scone. After we’d finished them, I asked her how it was, and she replied that the scone wasn’t very good. My almond orange cake was also pretty mediocre. Not bad, but just not good either. So… I guess we consign this bakery to the ranks of uninspiring and avoid going there again.

Also while we were there another couple arrived and sat at the cafe table next to us, eating char-grilled chicken and Vietnamese rice paper rolls that they’d bought from some other shops nearby. They didn’t buy anything from this cafe at all. And then the guy went inside and grabbed some serviettes! Now I don’t know about other countries necessarily, but here if you sit at a cafe table you’re expected to be buying something from that cafe, not just eating whatever other food you’ve brought from somewhere else. The cafe staff didn’t shoo them away though, which really surprised me.

New content today:

First play of Arcs

Firstly one thing I forgot to mention on Thursday: While waiting for my iPhone appointment at Apple, after having some lunch I went to the new Lego store. This one in the heart of the city is supposed to be the biggest Lego store in the world. Although honestly I’ve been in the Lego store in Cologne, and the one here isn’t really that much bigger; maybe 20 or 30% bigger in floor space. They had some cool giant models. I would have taken some photos to show, but I only had my old phone and it was about to be wiped when trading it in for the new one. (I suppose I could have uploaded them somewhere or emailed them to myself, but I couldn’t be bothered.)

Friday was board games night at a friend’s place. This particular occasion was special because one of my friends just got given the keys to his brand new house by the builders. He had his old house demolished and a new one built on the land. We got to christen it with a games night, even though he hasn’t moved in yet. He brought over a table and some chairs and some ice to throw in a sink to keep drinks cold (no refrigerator).

We played Arcs for the first time. We decided to make it a learning game and not try to play too seriously, and just see how far we got before we decided we’d learnt how to play, then stop ready to restart a proper game next time.

It’s a space battle game over a set of planets in different systems. There are several different strategies for scoring points, some more aggressive and others more passive. We ended up playing 3 “chapters” of the possible 5 that makes a complete game. We were enjoying it, but felt it was getting a bit late and we’d learnt the game well enough by that point. Several players had made what later turned out to be strategically awful moves, so rather than play to completion we called the game done. In particular I tried attacking very early and aggressively, and ended up losing enough ships that I had to spend a long time simply recovering my position. Next time we’ll be prepared and ready for serious competition.

Today (Saturday) I got up a bit early. The sun is rising before 05:30, and the birds make noise way earlier. This changes tomorrow when daylight saving starts, so sunrise will be at a more sane 06:30. I went for a 5k run. It was already warm when I started at 8 o’clock. The day was a warm one. I made a new Darths & Droids comic.

In the afternoon my wife and I went for a long walk with Scully over to Cammeray. There’s a Mexican place there that does good margaritas and we had some during their happy hour, with some chips and guacamole. After relaxing for a bit we ordered some dinner. I got a plate of pork with corn various spicy bits and pieces, my wife got halloumi with broccolini and patatas bravas. Each plate came with tortillas to make little taco-like handfuls. The food was good and very filling.

Then we walked all the way home again as the sun went down. Venus and a super thin crescent moon were setting in the western sky, which was glowing orange. A nice way to end the evening.

New content yesterday:

New content today:

No nuts!

I learnt a weird new fact about Italian today while watching an Italian YouTube cooking video.

There’s no word for “nut” in Italian.

The language only has words for specific types of nuts: walnuts, almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, etc. In a sense, this is logical, since most of the plant parts described in English as “nuts” are diverse and botanically and anatomically unrelated. A bag of mixed nuts in Italian is called a bag of frutta secca, which literally means “dry fruits”.

Rewinding to this morning, after I did my two ethics classes I backed up my iPhone and then went into the city to the Apple store to buy myself a new release iPhone 16. My current phone was an 11, so six years old, and the battery life was really starting to degrade noticeably. In fact for the walk I did on Tuesday I started with a fully charged phone, and it was almost empty by the time I got home. So I decided it was a good time to upgrade.

I traded in the old phone for partial credit on the new one. I got an iPhone 16 Pro model, with the superior camera. I take a lot of photos, and the extra telephoto focal lengths are the biggest feature for me. When I got home I spent some time checking out the camera features and I’m pretty impressed. Also the new camera control button is pretty cool and should be extremely useful.

I had to restore the phone from my backup, which went smoothly, but took some time. My old phone had a leather case which I liked. but I noticed the cases for the 16 only come in silicone, which I dislike the feel of, and polycarbonate plastic, which seems tacky to me. Also the case doesn’t allow the phone to lie flat like my old one did, due to the protruding camera lenses on the back. That was one of the main reasons I had a case on the old one. So I opted not to get a case at this stage. I’ll see how I go with the naked phone for a while before deciding if I want a case or not.

New content today:

8 kilos of cards mailed

Today I worked on a new Darths & Droids strip in the morning. Then before lunch I had to pack almost 8 kilograms of Magic: the Gathering cards to be mailed off. Someone had bought a huge stack of common cards off me, and a smaller number of uncommons and some rares. It added up to a fair value, but it’s also good to simply get rid of a large shoebox full of cards!

It was too heavy to consider walking up to the post office, so I drove up with Scully. I was hungry so we sat at the fish & chip shop first and I had a chicken burger for lunch. Then I went to the post office and sent the package. I also sent off a copy of each of my two Irregular Webcomic! books to a reader. I still have a few copies of those available (in case anyone reading this wants some).

This evening I had three ethics classes on the new topic of Time Passing, which I started yesterday. I think this is a slightly tricky topic to get the kids talking about, as some of the questions are a bit abstract and open, and their thinking is still a bit limited. As in they’re imagining restrictions to possible answers that aren’t really there. For example, I ask them “What are some things that change over time?” and a lot of the answers are focused on technology, while ignoring other potential avenues such as nature, culture, or societal values. I’m still working out how to encourage broader responses without too much prompting. But hopefully it’s a good exercise in getting the kids to think more broadly, rather than setting their own restrictions.

New content today:

Bondi to Coogee Walk

Today my wife took Scully to work, so I had the entire morning free. I decided to leave early and catch the train and bus to Bondi Beach, and then do the Bondi to Coogee Walk along the coast. I took the new Metro train to Martin Place and changed to a regular train to Bondi Junction, and then hopped on a bus to the beach.

I arrived there before 9am and the weather was fine and mild, with the forecast maximum of 22°C. I began the walk at the southern end of Bondi Beach. Here’s the view looking north back to the beach.

Heading south, the first major sight is the Bondi Icebergs swimming club, with its ocean pools.

The waves sometimes crash spectacularly over these pools, but the ocean wasn’t too rough today.

Rounding the Icebergs, there’s a view looking back north over the pool to Bondi Beach.

From here the path south follows a fairly new track with boardwalks built in the last decade or two. I’ve never done this new walking path before!

The path head south around a rocky headland called McKenzies Point.

Here there are sandstone cliffs overlooking the ocean, undercut by the waves.

Around the point we can see the next couple of inlets in the coast, with Tamarama Beach (hidden) and Bronte Beach (left).

There were bunches of surfers in the rough water near Tamarama. Tamarama is the roughest and most dangerous beach in Sydney because of the geography of the bay.

Tamarama Beach itself looks like this. It’s tiny.

Rounding the next headland we get a good look at Bronte Beach. Bigger and safer for swimming. Although the sea is still a little rough today after some heavy weather over the weekend.

Circling around the beach to the south side, we find Bronte Baths. Unlike the Icebergs Club, this pool is free for anyone to use.

A wider view.

The new walking track isn’t very well signposted. I followed what I thought was the track around the pool, only to find a dead end. So I had to track back and take a set of stairs up to another path above. On the way I took this photo of the pool from the southern end.

Eventually I found the correct path and continued south past Bronte. Here’s a panorama looking back to the north.

The next sight is Waverly Cemetery, the cemetery with the best view in all of Australia. A new boardwalk takes walkers along the cliff below the cemetery. Walkers here used to have to walk through the cemetery, which annoyed the local council.

It’s a historical and very picturesque cemetery. In fact I saw a group of three guys in there filming something.

Here’s the view looking back north once past the cemetery.

The next beach is Clovelly, which is a tiny beach in a very deep, sheltered bay. Unlike Tamarama, here the long cove calms the waters so much that there were toddlers splashing in the water.

There’s another free public pool here too.

Next along the coast is Gordons Bay, which has a tiny beach, but mostly used for launching boats, not for swimming.

And around this next small headland is our destination, Coogee Beach.

The beach has this cool rainbow decoration on the main central steps down to the sand. It wasn’t far from here that I spotted one of my neighbours, walking his dog! I said hello and he was surprised to see me too. He’d dropped his partner off at some work thing nearby and was walking their dog along the beach while waiting to take her home again afterwards.

I ended my walk at a cafe in Coogee, The Little Kitchen. I had the chorizo and chick pea shakshuka, which was delicious. They also had muffins, which turned out to be strawberry and chocolate, in the one muffin! I had one of those too as a dessert (but forgot to take a photo of it).

After a relaxing meal, I caught a bus back to Bondi Junction, where I stopped to look around the shops for a bit. I timed my departure to arrive back at North Sydney on the Metro in time to pick up Scully from my wife’s work. And then I had to walk her all the way back home from there! I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing after a busy day…

New content today:

Busy Baking Bits

I made sourdough bread today, and I made pizza for dinner. Tonight we had mushroom pizza, which is a topping we don’t have too often.

Again, it was a pretty standard day. I had a bunch of classes to teach. And in between I worked on next week’s new topic, which is Time Passing. I’ll be asking the kids questions about what things change over time, how fast, why, and what’s good and bad about how things change. We’ll also look at aspects of nostalgia, and looking forward to the future.

The reason I did it today instead of waiting until Tuesday like I normally do is that tomorrow I’m planning to go out in the morning and spend the time doing some stuff I wouldn’t normally get to do. This is because my wife is going to take Scully to work, so I won’t have to look after her at all, and I can go places that I wouldn’t be able to take a dog. I’m thinking I might do the Bondi to Coogee walk.

New content today:

Reasons to lie

It’s interesting in this current ethics topic I’m teaching on Detecting Lies. I ask the kids what are some reasons why people might tell lies. The very first thing they think of, in every single class, is:

If someone does something they shouldn’t, they might lie to stay out of trouble.

I presume this is because it’s the main reason kids lie.

This morning I worked on another new Darths & Droids comic. It was chilly and showery, so I waited until after to lunch to do my 5k run. Then it was the usual kind of afternoon and evening with classes, and cooking dinner. Tonight we had pasta with pesto and some chopped broccoli and pumpkin pieces mixed in.

I also booked a nice restaurant for our wedding anniversary, which is coming up in a few weeks. We asked our neighbours if they’d mind Scully for the evening and they were delighted to say yes.

Not much else to say about today – it was a pretty routine Sunday.

New content today: