# Week Notes - August 2


## My Macbook Is No Longer Ill

I wrote [last week](/blog/2020/07/27/Week-Notes-July-26th/) that my Macbook was
having battery swelling problems. I took it into a local Mac repair shop -- not
an Apple store, because none of my nearby stores had any appointment slots --
and to my surprise, it was repaired within the week. I'd been anticipating being
without my laptop for longer, because when I took it in the technician told me
the replacement part supply chain had been disrupted due to COVID.

The replacement battery / labor ended up costing me a similar amount to what the
laptop is worth (~\$400), but... hopefully I'll get a year or so more out of it
before some other part goes bad.

![Double-decker Laptop Stand](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2020/08/03/Week-Notes-August-2/laptops.jpg)

One uh... _contributing factor_ to just how bad the battery bloated was likely
the thermal conditions I've been keeping it in. I have a work laptop and a
personal laptop, and I've been just stacking them on my desk. (Very Bad Idea, in
retrospect!) I suspect my personal laptop wasn't getting enough air over it or
something. I bought a laptop stand that doubles as a "thermal separation"
between the two laptops.

## It's Definitely Summer

Every year, Seattle gets three, maybe four, weeks of nice summer weather -- and
we're in the midst of them now. These are the weeks that make it worth putting
up with months and months of gray drizzly skies. It's seriously _perfect_
weather: mid-to-high 70's, low humidity, gentle breeze... \*chef's kiss\*

Since we've been stuck inside, I've been more observant of our local wildlife:
hummingbirds, Steller's jays, woodpeckers, several types of squirrel. It might
be the cabin fever setting in, but I've been enjoying just watching the trees
move with the breeze in the evening. A nice reminder that the Pacific Northwest
is abundant with eye-catching nature, even in one's figurative back yard.

![](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2020/08/03/Week-Notes-August-2/trees.jpg)

During the last few summers, I was traveling or living elsewhere so I missed
these magic few weeks. I'm glad to be around to enjoy the Seattle summer this
year, even though the circumstances are not what I expected.

## Assorted Links

-   [Apparently, there's a world championship of "Microsoft Office"](https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/08/01/898099615/microsoft-office-specialist-world-championship-canceled-because-of-pandemic)
    (and it's canceled this year because of COVID).
-   Ed Yong's
    ["Why the Pandemic Is So Bad in America"](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/09/coronavirus-american-failure/614191/)
    is a must read. There's nothing _new_ in it, per se, but the way that it
    lays out a timeline of the pandemic -- and the US's failed response to it --
    is arresting. Ed Yong has been one of my favorite writers during the
    pandemic (_The Atlantic_ as a whole has been churning out sharp writing),
    and this latest long form article did not disappoint.

> The U.S. cannot prepare for these inevitable crises if it returns to normal,
> as many of its people ache to do. Normal led to this. Normal was a world ever
> more prone to a pandemic but ever less ready for one. To avert another
> catastrophe, the U.S. needs to grapple with all the ways normal failed us.

-   [Maybe a little hedonism is good?](https://www.media.uzh.ch/en/Press-Releases/2020/Hedonism.html) -
    This is an interesting press release for a University of Zurich study which
    found that short-term enjoyment mattered as much to one's sense of life
    satisfaction as the accomplishment of long-term goals: (Standard caveats
    about small sample size, reproducibility, etc. apply)

> “It’s time for a rethink,” says Katharina Bernecker, researcher in
> motivational psychology at the University of Zurich. “Of course self-control
> is important, but research on self-regulation should pay just as much
> attention to hedonism, or short-term pleasure.” That’s because Bernecker’s new
> research shows that people’s capacity to experience pleasure or enjoyment
> contributes at least as much to a happy and satisfied life as successful
> self-control.

-   [This](https://open.spotify.com/track/1jSFBq1v1mv20e3vthBU4V?si=zCBdChW9SgeR9PskreJgaA)
    arrangement of _Night in Tunisia_ was my favorite thing I listened to all
    week.

>