#hk72posts — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #hk72posts, aggregated by home.social.
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Oh, just found out where the "lower value human capital" thing has come from - Standard Chartered's CEO Bill Winters:
"It’s not cost-cutting. It’s replacing, in some cases, lower-value human capital with the financial capital and investment capital we’re putting in."
ie job "reductions in favour of machines, and that will accelerate as we go forward into AI."
So that's clear, then - humans are lower value than AI.
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I've started considering doing strength training via weight bands or a weighted vest, so this article is informative.
https://www.womanandhome.com/health-wellbeing/weighted-vest-for-walking/
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Looking at the various exercise zones on my smart watch, the breakdown is as follows:
Resting: Under 50% max heart rate
Warm up: Zone 1 - 50%-60% max heart rate
Fat burning: Zone 2 - 60%-70% max heart rate
Cardiorespiratory strengthening: Zone 3 - 70%-80% max heart rate
Stamina Enhancement: Zone 4 - 80%-90% max heart rate
Anaerobic limit: Zone 5 - 90%-100% max heart rateAlthough I try to walk at a brisk pace of between 3-4mph most of the time, I only seem to get into the Warm up and Fat burning zones (1-2) for about half of that time, with the remainder being in the Resting zone. So even though I'm walking fast enough for it to count as moderate intensity exercise, only some of it counts if I look at heart rate and exercise zones.
My step rate's pretty good, though, as I do a circuit of nearly 3,000 steps in under 24 minutes most of the time - well over 100 steps per minute.
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Two small close shaves today. This morning my phone was on 3% even though I don't remember leaving any apps open, and after charging for a while I got it stuck in "fastboot mode," which meant it sat there doing nothing, until I managed to get it to restart a few hours later. Then at lunchtime I'd made lunch and had just taken a bite out of a ham roll, when I saw a small spot of mould. Binned the sandwich, and made a new one.
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Watched the last of Good Omens yesterday, and felt that the ending was rushed. Not surprising, really, since it was supposed to be 6 episodes, not a 97-minute finale. It was the right ending, though - Crowley and Aziraphale did what they should do.
https://lytrules.substack.com/p/good-omens-season-3-review-gay-angels
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Strength and flexibility training is one major point that I know I largely ignore when it comes to exercise. I don't do any specific training sessions, despite being aware that I should do two sessions per week. This is still one area where the advice is fairly nebulous on what actually counts as a session.
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/how-to-improve-strength-flexibility/
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Exercise goals
* Brisk walking every day, generally 4 hours per week, 3-4 mph
* Return trip to charity shop - 30 mins / 3,500 steps
* Canal path circuit - 23 mins / 3,000 steps (twice per day)
* 8,000 steps per day
* Increase time spent in Zones 1 - 3 during exercise
NEAT goals
* 4 volunteering sessions per week - 4 hours sorting books
* Sedentary alert to get up after 1 hour of sitting
* Carrying shopping home from the town centre - 10 mins of resistance / strength training
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Average Walking Speed
- If your comfortable speed already sits at 3 mph, then hitting the moderate-intensity threshold means you need to push to roughly 3.5–4 mph, not stroll.
- Recovery / NEAT / stress-reduction walk: 2.5–3.0 mph. Nasal breathing. Conversational.
- Brisk walk / moderate cardio (CDC threshold): 3.0–3.8 mph. Breathing is elevated but sentences still come out whole.
- Power walk / Zone 2 substitute: 3.8–4.5 mph. Arm swing engaged. Short phrases only.
- Walk-run interval pace: 4.5 mph+. At this point most people unconsciously break into a jog, which is a fine sign that the interval is working.
1/2
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Passed the 500,00 Exercise Steps milestone on Saturday 9th May. Next ones are probably 2 million Total Steps, 1 million NEAT Steps, and 1 million Exercise Steps.
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Okay, time for a rambling thread on exercise, with added articles.
Basic overview on exercise
- Exercise is good, even in small amounts.
- Government guidelines recommend 150 minutes of exercise per week, and research suggest 3 - 5 hours may offer the greatest longevity benefit; beyond 5 hours the gains level off.
- “But brisk walking most days of the week is incredibly effective. It’s actually better to walk consistently than to overdo it once in a while."
- “The closer you get to 7,000 or 8,000 steps a day, the better – but anything that gets you moving regularly is a win.”
1/5
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So this is why I wake up feeling all achy!
https://www.uhhospitals.org/blog/articles/2024/06/why-do-you-wake-up-in-pain
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Yesterday the charity shop manager could smell mildew near the storage area for incoming donations. We don't know the source, yet, as there are a lot of bags in that area, but it's likely that one of them contains something in pretty bad condition. It's probable that the bag (or bags, if we're unlucky) was stored in an attic, garage, or shed, and then just brought to us as a donation, without checking the condition of the contents. It will need to go straight in the bin when we find it - although we're prepared to clean some things, there is a point where it is not an option. The main thing will be how much has it contaminated, and therefore how much has this donation actually cost us?
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On the books side, we had 323 books donated today, which split into 115 to go to the warehouse as donations, 105 for ragging, and 99 to be processed in our shop. Amongst all of this, there were a few A A Milne books that will need some research, as they are pretty early editions.
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We had 117 boxes and bags of donations today, which is a lot, even though we usually get about 60 bags on an average day. It felt like people had done some clearing out over the bank holiday weekend, and were now bringing it all in. We were getting very close to being completely full, though, and had put out the signs saying we couldn't accept any more donations today, and anyone who phoned up was asked if they could possibly delay until at least tomorrow, or preferably Friday.
Only one person seemed to get snippy about it, when it was explained that we couldn't take their four bags today, and could they try tomorrow when we'd have had a chance to sort through more bags and make some space. The thing is, four bags over the phone turns out to be a whole boot load in person, and we can't take that when we're virtually full. We don't want to turn donations away, but there are times when it's impossible not to.
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Had a visual aura for the first time in a few years - like a migraine but without much pain and more visual effects. It's mainly gone away, but it's screwing up my ability to put the right letters in words at the moment. Very annoying.
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"Non-exercise activity thermogenesis is all the little things you do during the day that keep your body moving — the movements you do that aren’t, technically, exercise."
This is why my daily step target is 8,000 steps - to include both EAT and NEAT steps (yes, exercise is EAT). So volunteering for 4 sessions of 4 hours per week works well for my general health and mobility.
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/non-exercise-activity-thermogenesis-neat-exercise
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Steps milestones this year so far:
25/04/2026 - 500,000 NEAT steps
01/05/2026 - 1,000,000 Total steps
Next up - 500,000 Exercise steps
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/non-exercise-activity-thermogenesis-neat-exercise
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We had a lot of books donated in April - over 4,300! Sent about 2,000 to the warehouse as donations, 1,000 for ragging, and kept about 1,300 for processing in our shop. Thank you to everyone who donated!
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Yesterday I decided to buy some cottage cheese (with pineapple!) to try out. Bad decision. Today I made the even worse decision to eat the rest of it. Not quite sure how it managed to taste a lot worse today than it did yesterday - yesterday it was okay, but not great, today it was barely edible - but it did. Anyway, I'm not buying that again.
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I've been trying out different calcium-rich foods recently, and am pleasantly surprised by skyr and quark - which are both types of cheese, but look a lot like very solid yoghurt. Today I decided to give cottage cheese a go. It can definitely go.
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May the Forth bridge be with you.
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Just logged over 1 million steps for 2026. Aiming to do 3 million by the end of the year.
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April 2026 Books Read: 14
The Examiner - Janice Hallett
The Man In The Brown Suit - Agatha Christie
This Is Not A Game - Kelly Mullen
The Girlfriend - K L Slater
The Only Suspect - Louise Candlish
The Institute - Stephen King
Black Flowers - Alex North
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels - Janice Hallett
It Ends Here - Heidi Perks
Burn After Reading - Catherine Ryan Howard
10 Marchfield Square - Nicola Whyte
The Surf House - Lucy Clarke
The Hiding Season - A C Glass
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RE: https://mastodonapp.uk/@HollieK72/116475688596906468
New soffits, fascias, and guttering have now been installed, completely sealing in the older, possibly asbestos-ridden stuff. The porch light still needs to be wired in by the electrician, but everything else looks shiny and new.
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I've just been looking at a Dietary Reference Intakes calculator to find out more about how much protein I should eat, and found the following non-essential minerals at the bottom.
No, I don't want to include any arsenic in my diet!
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Before we had our front door replaced, some people used to ignore the doorbell and use the letterbox to rap at the door, which eventually led it to break. So when we were planning the new front door, we decided to get a door knocker, so that people who hadn't seen the new doorbell (shiny chrome, and not exactly invisible) could use that instead of the letterbox. We also got a white letterbox to blend in with the white door so hopefully fewer people see it and decide to knock with it.
People now knock on the glass panels instead. 🤦♀️
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Sealioning - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning
A type of trolling or harassment. Please don't do it!
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On my way back home I decided to time how quickly I actually do walk when laden down with shopping - does it really count as brisk (3-4 mph)? Apparently the answer is yes, my pace was 11min 45secs / km, which is somewhere over 3 mph. It was accurate too - I wasn't going to try walking faster than I would normally because the shopping was heavy and I was tired.
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After having our windows and external doors replaced, we looked at the state of the porch, and decided it was way past time to do something about the soffits and fascias as well. When the surveyor came around, he pointed out that the soffits may be asbestos, and the two options are either to have it all taken down by a company specialising in asbestos removal, or leave it in place, underneath the new soffits - it is fine, as long as you don't disturb it.
Never have I been so glad that we're "lazy" enough not to have sanded it down and repainted it at any point.
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We have someone who regularly donates 6 boxes of books every time he comes in. I think he has been doing this since September / October last year, and apparently he does house clearances, which explains where all the books are coming from, and what sorts of books we get from him. There are often a lot of children's books included, which seems to indicate grandparents with shelves of books for when their grandchildren visit.
Generally his donations are sorted into roughly 1/3 to us for processing, 1/3 to the warehouse as potential donations, and 1/3 to the warehouse for ragging. He's obviously just had his Gift Aid sales email from St Richard's Hospice, as he told one of my fellow volunteers that he has raised over £1,700 in Gift Aid sales. That's absolutely amazing, and very good to know from the point of view of sorting the books. He is a gold mine!
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My heart sank when I heard that our lightbulbs were going to be delivered by Evri, and true to form, they did chuck the parcel over our 6 ft wooden gate. Luckily the bulbs appear to be intact.
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Yesterday's walks along the canal had some unexpected moments.
On my first walk I saw a class of kids bell-boating along the canal, which is always fun to watch.
On my second walk I was approaching a couple of women and a dog standing on or by the path and glanced over to the canal bank to see a large black shape that looked a bit like a dead bird. One of the women saw me looking and said "It's a muntjac deer." Not sure if this will resurrect the "big cats in Worcestershire" story.
https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/25033749.big-cats-worcestershire-panther-behind-kill/
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Looks like Iceland's big opening day went well.
https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/26039507.iceland-new-store-opens-droitwich-big-giveaways/
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RE: https://mastodonapp.uk/@HollieK72/116419545383788598
Seeing as Iceland was hyped as opening tomorrow, I was quite surprised to see it open today, so I popped in to have a look. All shiny and new, obviously, and the Big Opening Day is tomorrow, when I will definitely not be getting down to the town centre in the early hours of the morning to be in the queue before 07.30 to get a raffle ticket for a chance at a prize like a trolley dash or air fryer.
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Huge amounts of book donations today - we had 24 boxes and bags of books in, which I just managed to sort through in the afternoon, resulting in 295 books to the warehouse as donations, 158 books to the warehouse for ragging and 202 books for processing - 655 books in total.
Very happy, but that was about our limit for today, and we can't really take many (or any) books tomorrow until both the delivery van has come and collected everything to go to the warehouse, and some of the remaining books have been processed.
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March 2026 Books Read: 19
Spellbound - Georgia Leighton
Strange Houses - Uketsu
Message Deleted - K L Slater
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Two Rivers - T Greenwood
Oblivious - Neil Schiller
The Book Of Lost Hours - Hayley Gelfuso
Where There's Smoke - Jodi Picoult
The Goodbye Man - Jeffery Deaver
The Mysterious Affair At Styles - Agatha Christie
The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie
The Murder On The Links - Agatha Christie
Poirot Investigates - Agatha Christie
Murder By The Book - M R G Davies
The Alpine Retreat - Sarah Goodwin
The Appeal - Janice Hallett
How To Kill A Crime Writer - Sarah Lotz
The Twyford Code - Janice Hallett
A Game Of Murder - M R G Davies
Currently Reading: The Man In The Brown Suit - Agatha Christie
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February 2026 Books Read: 17
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
No Place To Hide - Rebecca Griffiths
Before I Go To Sleep - SJ Watson
The Motel - Nancy Savage
The Lucky Winners - K L Slater
Dust - Arthur Slade
Snowdrops - A D Miller
*Locker 19 - J Cronshaw
The Last Trip - Rowan Chambers
The Burning Stones - Antti Tuomainen
Containment - Christian Cantrell
A Neighbour's Guide To Murder - Louise Candlish
The Society Of Unknowable Objects - Gareth Brown
The Never Game - Jeffery Deaver
The Life Of Chuck - Stephen King
The Martian - Andy Weir
Reacher: Killing Floor - Lee Child
Did Not Finish:
Island Builder - Andrew Karevik
2084 - Mason Engel
*Locker 19 by J Cronshaw was the first book that I began to suspect was AI generated part way through, and read to the end to confirm my suspicions. Then I went back to scrutinise other books I'd read recently.
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After realising that I had unintentionally read an AI-generated thriller on Wednesday, I spent yesterday reviewing the last 30-odd books that I've bought, to see if any of them are also AI-generated, and what red flags to look out for.
I checked:
Publication date
Publisher
Publisher's website
Author's website
Number of books written per yearSo far I've come to the following conclusions about the "authors":
1. Has self-published 8 books in 2025, with virtually identical covers, via a "book publishing company" that's basically him and his wife. His website is awful, and he didn't bother editing a large part of the one book I read.
2. Has self-published 5 books in 2025, with very similar covers, and his website is flagged as suspicious. The two books I read had been edited well enough to read as human-created, and the plots were reasonable, but not altogether credible.
1/3
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January 2026 Books Read: 23
Mickey 7 - Edward Ashton
Bullet Train - Kotaro Isako
Mr Mercedes - Stephen King
*The Night Before Christmas - Maria Frankland
Finders Keepers - Stephen King
The Winter Visitor - B P Walter
*The Winter Retreat - Maria Frankland
The Woman In The Opposite Window - Rose Hard
Friend Request - Laura Marshall
Dead Of Winter - Keri Beevis
*The Life I Had - Aaron Quinn
End Of Watch - Stephen King
The Christmas Party - Kathryn Croft
Everyone Here Is Lying - Shari Lapena
Two Truths One Lie - Alex Sinclair
Wish - Alexandra Bullen
The Perfect Wife - Hannah Price
Little Siberia - Antti Tuomainen
*I Don't Like Mondays - Maria Frankland
Seven Bodies - V J Randle
You Are Fatally Invited - Ande Pliego
Run Away - Harlan Coben
Anxious People - Fredrik Backman
Currently Reading: Island Builder - Andrew Karevik
* Aaron Quinn and Maria Frankland appear to produce AI-generated human-edited books very frequently.
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December 2025 Books Read: 13
2025 Books Read: 151
The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham
The Last Hour Between Worlds - Melissa Caruso
The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin
Cold People - Tom Rob Smith
The Apocalypse Codex - Charles Stross
The Woman In Black - Susan Hill
Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
The Rhesus Chart - Charles Stross
About Time - Jodi Taylor
The Book Of Guilt - Catherine Chidgey
The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August - Claire North
The Christmas Guest - Aaron Quinn
The Other People - C B Everett
Currently Reading: Mickey 7 - Edward Ashton
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December 2025 Books Read: 13
2025 Books Read: 151
The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham
The Last Hour Between Worlds - Melissa Caruso
The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin
Cold People - Tom Rob Smith
The Apocalypse Codex - Charles Stross
The Woman In Black - Susan Hill
Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
The Rhesus Chart - Charles Stross
About Time - Jodi Taylor
The Book Of Guilt - Catherine Chidgey
The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August - Claire North
The Christmas Guest - Aaron Quinn
The Other People - C B Everett
Currently Reading: Mickey 7 - Edward Ashton
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December 2025 Books Read: 13
2025 Books Read: 151
The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham
The Last Hour Between Worlds - Melissa Caruso
The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin
Cold People - Tom Rob Smith
The Apocalypse Codex - Charles Stross
The Woman In Black - Susan Hill
Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
The Rhesus Chart - Charles Stross
About Time - Jodi Taylor
The Book Of Guilt - Catherine Chidgey
The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August - Claire North
The Christmas Guest - Aaron Quinn
The Other People - C B Everett
Currently Reading: Mickey 7 - Edward Ashton
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December 2025 Books Read: 13
2025 Books Read: 151
The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham
The Last Hour Between Worlds - Melissa Caruso
The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin
Cold People - Tom Rob Smith
The Apocalypse Codex - Charles Stross
The Woman In Black - Susan Hill
Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
The Rhesus Chart - Charles Stross
About Time - Jodi Taylor
The Book Of Guilt - Catherine Chidgey
The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August - Claire North
The Christmas Guest - Aaron Quinn
The Other People - C B Everett
Currently Reading: Mickey 7 - Edward Ashton
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December 2025 Books Read: 13
2025 Books Read: 151
The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham
The Last Hour Between Worlds - Melissa Caruso
The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin
Cold People - Tom Rob Smith
The Apocalypse Codex - Charles Stross
The Woman In Black - Susan Hill
Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
The Rhesus Chart - Charles Stross
About Time - Jodi Taylor
The Book Of Guilt - Catherine Chidgey
The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August - Claire North
The Christmas Guest - Aaron Quinn
The Other People - C B Everett
Currently Reading: Mickey 7 - Edward Ashton
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Had my first visit to the Glaucoma Data Capture Clinic yesterday - as a follow-up to having had laser eye treatment in both eyes 3 months ago. They ran a lot of tests, and then gave me a letter to say that the info will be reviewed by the glaucoma team within the next four weeks and I will receive a copy of the letter they send to my GP within 12 weeks of being reviewed.
12 weeks!?!
This is what their website said:
"Within a few days a member of the Glaucoma Team will check all the information and decide the best plan for your eyes. We will write to you to tell you the plan for treatment and follow-up. The letter will also mention the test results and we will send a copy of the letter to your GP and also, if appropriate, to your optometrist (community optician)."
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After my ophthalmology appointment back in June, where I found out I may have primary angle-closure glaucoma and will need laser eye surgery, I finally got a date for the surgery. At least now I can prepare for it.
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December 2024 Books Read: 11
2024 Books Read: 72
Turtle Recall: The Discworld Companion - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Briggs
Those Beyond The Wall - Micaiah Johnson
A Door Into Time - Shawn Inmon
Seven Rules Of Time Travel - Roy Huff
The Rules Of Time Travel - L A Birchon
How To Become The Dark Lord And Die Trying - Django Wexler
Terms May Apply - Keith A Pearson
In Lieu Of You - Keith A Pearson
Future Proof - David Atkinson
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November 2024 Books Read: 3
Titanium Noir - Nick Harkaway
Fairy Tale - Stephen King
City of Blades - Robert Jackson Bennett
Currently Reading: Turtle Recall: The Discworld Companion* - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Briggs
*Yes, I am actually reading it cover to cover, and most of the entries, which may be a bit odd, but I'm aiming to read all of Pterry on kindle.
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October 2024 Books Read: 5
An Abandoned Woman - Lexie Conyngham
A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories - Terry Pratchett
The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society - C M Waggoner
The Tainted Cup - Robert Jackson Bennett
Nothing But The Rain - Naomi Salman
Currently Reading: Titanium Noir - Nick Harkaway
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December 2023 Books Read: 7
2023 Books Read:77
Snuff - Terry Pratchett
Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett
The Shepherd's Crown - Terry Pratchett
Starter Villain - John Scalzi
Trigger Warning - Neil Gaiman
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
Currently Reading: OverLondon - George Penney & Tony Johnson