The days are now said to be getting longer, here in the northern hemisphere, following the winter solstice, yesterday. Something I have focused on throughout the year is getting as much sunlight as possible. This coupled with taking a Vitamin D tablet each non-sunny day and I've had no Winter's Blues to speak of. If it's not raining in the morning then I like to take my morning coffee, bowl of nuts, and the current book I'm reading, off up to the end of my garden to sit and face the morning rays. These days that involves donning a warm coat, woolly hat and gloves, cosy footwear, and Dickens' Pictures from Italy. I don't heat my home like an old people's home, so I don't find it to be cold outside.

Speaking of heating my home. I've just sold two ATI graphics cards I've been trying to sell all year, since my last Einstein@home stint ended (back in March). It took so long that I started using them again for the current stint, although they're not ideal for the project due to Nvidia ones being better supported. My plan was to sell them and replace them with one or two second-hand Nvidias, but now the prices of those have gone up somewhat, so I'm not sure what to do. Plus, I've had to leave the computer off some days anyway due to my internet usage being limited. It had done well to add some warmth to my lounge though, which drifted upstairs to my office [seen on Day 6].

I'd originally bought the two ATIs back in 2021 because I had it in my head to build a CrossFire system to play some games on, since I had a compatible motherboard. I ended up enjoying Euro Truck Simulator 2 for a while (2021), even though the computer was never got properly set up in CrossFire mode... I have a lot of projects that go like this, but at least I have my website to help keep track of such things, and look back on.

In other news, if you've been following this calendar thing thus far, you'll be pleased to hear the bulb has now been replaced in my microwave [Day 12] and I can see things rotating within once more.

In other other news, I think the Fitbit that I received 5 years ago will be ditched. This year the screen dimmed to nothing and the straps broke for the last time (I had to glue the replacements on due to the retaining mechanisms disintegrating). Originally I liked wearing the device at night so it could do the smart wake thing, but wearing it in bed now further risked the straps coming off. Beyond tracking my physical activities on days where I did a lot (such as when I did an 8-day-hike a few years ago), I find no point to it (I just keep charging it to keep it alive, but haven't worn it for weeks/months), since I know how many calories I'm likely to have burnt on any given day. I track my running and cycling miles more roughly, which is perfectly adequate. I've been using my phone to wake me each morning at the same time and this has worked fine for me. Furthermore, when I originally got the Fitbit, Fitbit was Fitbit (IIRC), but then they sold out to Google. I've been prompted to move my Fitbit account over to a/my Google account but I've always opted out of this, but I think they're scrapping the optional part in the next couple of months, and while I'm sure Google have access to whatever data they want, with or without my say-so, I'd rather ditch it than actively hand things over to them. I might try and do the 'Download your data' option before then.

I've not yet made this year's mince pies, so here are last years: