William Estep

Retired submariner, application enginner, video manager.

Posts by Category

ClubReading

Just a Note Regarding Harry Potter

less than 1 minute read

I just wanted to take a second and say that I nor anyone associated with this website approves of or appreciates the destructive and bigoted transphobic mess...

Nick Hornby’s “A Long Way Down”

1 minute read

The first chapter of Nick Hornby’s novel, “A Long Way Down” introduces the 4 main characters, Martin, Maureen, Jess and JJ. Each main character tells the ...

“A House in Sicily” by Daphne Phelps

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Daphne Phelps inherited a house in Sicily called Casa Cuseni. At the time, Daphne had no knowledge of Italian, no money, and was war-weary. At 34, she mo...

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Knitting

Double Basket Beanie Pattern Is Live

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I finally finished writing the pattern to my satisfaction and testing the various options. I’m really happy with this one. It’s an interesting and very squis...

My Favorite Everything Socks

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My first package from the wonderful Woolens & Nosh yarn club was from October, 2023, and since it was my first, I wanted to make something special with i...

Double Basket Beanie Prototype

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I finished the first prototype of my new Double Basket Beanie. Based on Barbara Walker’s Double Basket Pattern this beanie is comfortable and squishy. Also a...

Beanie Prototype: Double Basket Pattern

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I am working on a new Beanie using the delightful Double Basket pattern. The prototype is comfortable, squishy, and has an interesting texture. Keep an eye o...

Basket Weave Beanie

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I just added my first pattern to Ravelry. The pattern is for a great little beanie using the Basket Weave pattern.

Vertices Unite Shawl

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It took a while, but I finally finished my first Westknits shawl, Vertices Unite. I used the sock yarns from @by.delz’s sock club, so each section has a nice...

Fair Isle Pattern

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On page 91 of Barbara Walker’s, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vol 1, pages 88-89 is the “Fair Isle” pattern. It is nice stranded colorwork and a nice intro...

Harlequin Pattern

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My new favorite pattern from Barbara Walker’s, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vol 1, pages 88-89 is the Harlequin Pattern. It doesn’t look like much from th...

Knotted Rib and Broad Spiral Rib

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For this swatch/block in my crazy quilt project, I knit a combination of the Knotted Rib and Broad Spiral Rib from Barbara Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Pa...

Swiss Check Pattern

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The next swatch in my crazy quilt project is the Swiss Check Pattern from Barbara Walker’s, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vol 1, page 90. I knit this with ...

Squared Check Pattern

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The Squared Check Pattern from Barbara Walker’s, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vol 1, page 19 is a lovely geometric pattern of alternating knits and purls....

Shadow Cable Pattern

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The Shadow Cable pattern from Barbara Walker’s, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vol 1, page 273 is the newest addition to the Crazy Quilt swatch stack. The s...

Chevron Pattern

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Check out the Chevron pattern from Barbara Walker’s, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vol 1, page 26. This is the newest addition to the Crazy Quilt swatch st...

Double Basket Pattern

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Welcome to the next in the stack of Crazy Quilt swatches. This new addition to the stack is the Double Basket pattern from Barbara Walker’s, A Treasury of Kn...

Basketweave

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This installment of the Crazy Quilt swatches is the Basketweave from Barbara Walker’s, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vol 1, page 16. Barbara opens this pat...

German Clustered Cable

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Another Crazy Quilt swatch from Barbara Walker’s, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vol 1, page 274, the German Clustered Cable. Barbara describes the pattern ...

King Charles Brocade

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This weeks Crazy Quilt swatch is the King Charles Brocade from Barbara Walker’s, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vol 1, page 31.

Hexagon Swatch

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The Crazy Quilt swatch block knitting continues! In Barbara Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vol 1, page 67, the Hexagon Pattern is an interesting mi...

Trellis With Moss Stitch

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The next Crazy Quilt swatch block is the beautiful Trellis with Moss Stitch pattern in Barbara Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vol 1, page 261.

Staghorn Cable Swatch

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Another stitch pattern for what I’m calling my Crazy Swatch Quilt project is the Staghorn Cable from Barbara Walker’s first Treasury of Knitting Patterns.

Swatch Quilt Ideas

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I’m working through Barbara Walker’s first Treasury of Knitting Patterns and making some swatches. I think I’ll make them large, with a bulky yarn and maybe ...

Found My Watchcap

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Cleaning out the boat I found my old watch cap (wool hat) that I made back in 2004 for an Alaska cruise. So glad to see it again! It’s in pretty good shape, ...

Freestyle Caps by Cheryl Andrews

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I’ve made two of the Freestyle Caps by Cheryl Andrews. It’s a fun knit. The construction of the brim doesn’t require any additional support, and the welt aro...

My First Gloves

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We don’t get a lot of cold weather here in Florida, but it’s been chilly the past few days, and my new “Don’t skid, honey!” by Justin Lorkowska gloves are ju...

The Fitzgerald Sweater

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I finished knitting my first Cardigan, and my first sweater done in pieces. The pattern (Fitzgerald by Amy Christoffers) is from Berroco and uses the Berroco...

Starting My Berroco Fitzgerald

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Here’s a view of the ribbing, center panel and some seed stitch on my Berroco Fitzgerald cardigan. Using Berroco vintage Chunky yarn in the cracked pepper co...

Knitting a Scottish Tam

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A friend of mine ask if I could knit him a Scottish Tam. Seems easy enough, and I’ve never done a felted project, so why not.

My finished watch cap

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I finished my new watch cap! Really happy with how it turned out.

I miss my old watch cap

1 minute read

I’ve enjoyed knitting off and on for many, many years. The last time I took the hobby seriously was back in 2005. During that time, I knit a really nice watc...

Countryside Scarf for Birthday

less than 1 minute read

Now that I’m back into knitting, I made a nice textured scarf for my sister on her birthday this year.

Cables! In a Hat!

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OMG! New hat done! Using Jason’s Cashmere Hat pattern, I created this nice hat using Patons Classic Wool Worsted in Aran.

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Ten Year Plan

New Radio Cabinet

2 minute read

For the holidays last year, my good friends, Al and Amie surprised me with a Raspberry Pi kit.

Ornament

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A friend gave me this cool metal sailboat ornament to decorate the boat for the holiday. Love it! I’ll have to find it a permanent home.

Rigging Repairs

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Rigging repairs on the boat are done. Nothing major, I had a short list of items I wanted repaired/replaced. The secondary supports for the port and starboar...

Ten Year Plan Number Plate

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s/v Ten Year Plan received it’s official number plate today. U.S. Coast Guard documented boats are assigned a lifetime documentation number. The requirements...

New Boat Arrives

1 minute read

My new Tender arrived today. So of course I had to set it up in my living room. 😁

Comfort Without the Bulk

less than 1 minute read

When I was looking to redo the V-Berth on my boat, I researched mattress options, and ran across several ‘under-mattress’ systems and ended up going with the...

Boat Renovations

1 minute read

Since purchasing the boat, I’ve been focusing on internal renovations and minor updates.

Ten Year Plan Boat Cards

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Thank you to Lindsay S. Powell Designs for the great boat cards. Another item checked off the list on the Ten Year Plan 🙂 I’m very happy with how they turned...

Ten Year Plan: Annapolis Boat Show Day 1

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I’m using my vacation time this year to check out the Annapolis BoatShow. I drove up yesterday, 10/8/15, and hit the show early this morning.

Hawaiian Classics Shirt in Green

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I found a really cool green and white stripped seersucker fabric and had to dosomething with it. So I made another shirt using the Hawaiian Classics pattern....

Hawaiian Classic Shirt #2

2 minute read

Time to start a new shirt. I purchased the Hawaiian Classics 220 shirt pattern from the Victoria Jones Collection. This is my first ‘non-beginner’ pattern. T...

Learning To Sew

1 minute read

Part of the ten year plan is learning some independence skills. For example, I want to be able to repair and create cushion covers and sail covers. This mean...

Clutter and The Ten Year Plan

4 minute read

I have a lot of stuff. Not nearly as much as some, but still plenty. I’m not a hoarder, so don’t expect to see me on any reality TV shows anytime soon. Durin...

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QOTD

Live Life

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Vive la vida y deja vivir

Dance in the Rain

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Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain. Vivian Greene

Albert Said it Best

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Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination. ...

QOTD: Camus

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Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. Albert Camus

QOTD: Sea Quest

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There comes a time when a man would have to be a complete fool not to realize that his fate hangs on a particle of time. Charles Borden, Sea Quest

QOTD: Raise Your Words

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Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder. Rumi

QOTD: Experience

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Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you. Aldous Huxley

QOTD: Anger

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Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. Mark Twain

QOTD: Dream by Moonlight

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A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. Oscar Wilde

QOTD: Provided

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The words of a dead man Are modified in the guts of the living W. H. Auden

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Writing

Autumn Shadows

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Every autumn the leaves turn. I travel to the place of my fathers resting. In an urban setting, Colored in ranch style houses and drying laundry, The two of ...

WOTD: Gonfalon

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A Gonfalon is a type of flag or banner suspended from a crossbar.

Catchup

less than 1 minute read

It has been a while since I’ve posted anything. Some fun stuff going on, so here are some updates.

Dragons Past and Present

15 minute read

Below is a paper I wrote for a college lit class. It was a fun research project. Enjoy – Bill

Old Words

3 minute read

Packing, boxes, tape, more boxes more tape…. That’s my life for the next few weeks. I’m getting ready to move. Finally facing reality and ditching the too-bi...

Blogs and Stats and Objectives

1 minute read

Jordan McCollum has a great post for writers introducing site analytics and what to look for. Web marketing is a strange combination of advertising, customer...

Why You Should Quit

less than 1 minute read

Chuck Wendig does these great “25 things” posts, taking the lists trend to a wonderful absurd. They are funny, very irreverent and often insightful. The late...

My Big Ass Gay Pity Party

3 minute read

I had a rough day yesterday. I let myself go to a dark place and the resulting big ass pity party wasn’t pretty.

Where are my thoughts

less than 1 minute read

Where are my thoughts? In small boxes and cubbyholes, Arcane bits of the past Whisper the names of old friends And hum old songs. In files, yellowed pa...

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Technology

Time to Cleanup My TextExpander Snippets

less than 1 minute read

I ran across a terrific blog post by Thomas Borowski discussing his TextExpander snippet for Pelican blog posts. I have my own snippet for such purposes, but...

Sublime Text 2

less than 1 minute read

I wanted to see what all the buzz is about, so I downloaded the evaluation of Sublime Text 2, and bought a copy a few minutes later. What a terrific editor. ...

iPhone Speed Vid

less than 1 minute read

Very cool video showing speed tests of all iPhones side by side.

The Galaxy Note II After a Week or So

1 minute read

The thing is huge! I know I’ve said that a dozen times already, but it is ridiculously large. Its the same (almost) screen size as my kindle touch. For someo...

The Galaxy Note II by Samsung

3 minute read

I got an evaluation phone at work to fiddle with for 30 days. I’ve been a long time apple iPhone fan, and still am, but I’ve been hearing more and more good ...

DIY Weekend

1 minute read

I did a bit of DIY this weekend. I love my car, but also really wanted bluetooth audio with the stereo. The factory Toyota options are a bit on the pricey si...

Macdrifter Summation of Text

less than 1 minute read

A Simplenote Affair « Macdrifter: “WriteRoom Dropbox sync is amazingly fast. It’s faster than Simplenote with a large collection of notes. I use WriteRoom...

Podcasts

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I am so behind on podcasts. At present…after a day of listening to podcasts, I have 8.2 days of content left to listen to. And it’s good stuff! I’m a huge fa...

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Wandering

Daily Reminder

less than 1 minute read

I’ve hung this Calvin and Hobbes comic in my office for more than twenty years. Now that I don’t have an office, it will live on in various electronic forms ...

Coffee!

less than 1 minute read

I’m surprised more of my posts aren’t coffee related. Nice fresh pot for some weekend boat work.

Jealous Car

less than 1 minute read

Yes, I’ve mentioned it before, I love my Prius. It’s a great car and I’m not ashamed to say it. I love the cool technology and the pleasant ride, and I love ...

Apartment Living

2 minute read

Yeah! I’m finally getting settled in the new place. Moving is exhausting. Mostly mental, but exhausting none the less.

Cigar Boxes

less than 1 minute read

I use a lot of index cards at work, and wanted something to toss them into. The idea of a cigar box came up, and a little searching, I found a seller on Etsy...

Dan Is All Class

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I don’t know the reasons, but I agree with what others have said, the show has been sliding, and Dan’s response is all class.

Stroll Back in Time

less than 1 minute read

What an amazing website! Shorpy is an archive, in very high detail of historical photo’s. Presented in blog format, just browsing through the archives is an ...

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Equality

Strides for Pride

less than 1 minute read

In 2017, my sister and I participated in the Strides for Pride 5k. We walked and had a good time.

Marriage: What Is It Good For?

1 minute read

Kudos to the Supreme Court yesterday ruling correctly that equality is a constitutional right under the law, and not something to be argued about and applied...

We Need More–I Want More

4 minute read

The cynic in me wants to say how awful things are and to rail against anything and everyone that doesn’t agree with me. But, if I did that, I’d be just like ...

Anger Management

3 minute read

Silence. Internal voices saying, “I’m not good enough,” and “I’m evil.” Jibes and taunts. I talked about this some in the MBAGPP post, what it is like to sta...

People Are Challenging

1 minute read

I make no claim to understand people. In fact, I’m often confused by peoples motivations or responses.

Common Questions

2 minute read

People are funny. Most folks require a certain comfort level to ask certain questions. But coming out on your blog does encourage those close acquaintances o...

Scalzi’s Take on Privilege

less than 1 minute read

John Scalzi ruffled some feathers again on his blog when he used a gaming metaphor to try and explain to the Straight White Male players in life that they ar...

My Big Ass Gay Pity Party

3 minute read

I had a rough day yesterday. I let myself go to a dark place and the resulting big ass pity party wasn’t pretty.

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Programming

Error Running Coverage on Ubuntu

less than 1 minute read

Trying to install pytest and coverage on my ubuntu development server, and ran into an issue when running coverage:

The Sublime Regex

1 minute read

Sublime Text is a really wonderful text editor. It’s flexible and extensible enough to cover just about any need, but still simple and clean to use. This pos...

Sublime Pelican Plugin

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Wow. If you, like me, are a Sublime convert, and a Pelican blogger, then this wonderful plugin is a must.

Maciej Cegłowski Discusses

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Check out Maciej Cegłowski’s great talk from XOXO 2013. He is the creator behind Pinboard. it’s a fun and inspiring talk.

Looking At a Python Pelican

3 minute read

I really like the static version of the site. It’s so much easier to support and configure. I can tweak to my hearts content. Jekyll is a wonderful platform...

Common MySQL Queries

less than 1 minute read

I ran across this terrific resource, Common MySQL Queries.

Basic Troubleshooting Techniques

7 minute read

Troubleshooting is tracking down pesky bugs, rooting them from the code and squashing them. Having some basic troubleshooting skills can greatly enhance your...

RSS Feed in Zend Framework

4 minute read

Going to get a little geeky here. But I wanted to share a simple, and effective way to create a simple rss feed of content in the Zend Framework.

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MPRP

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Photography

Downtown Sunset

less than 1 minute read

I was at our downtown clinic today, filming some new drone footage of the building. We had a beautiful sunset over the river.

City View

less than 1 minute read

Nice blue sky today. Great light for a city view. Enjoy!

I Met a Dog and Some Horses

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Of course, the Monday after daylight savings time shift, I had to drive to St. Augustine and film some interviews. I really could have used the extra hour of...

Sunsets on the Boat

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I haven’t posted a sunset from the boat in a while. Nice evening on the bow reading a book.

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Video

Fireworks in Slo-Mo

less than 1 minute read

Sometimes you get lucky. I was able to catch a cool clip of our local neighborhood fireworks in slow motion. Enjoy with sound on if you can.

Video Editing Adventures

1 minute read

I have a new role at work. For many years I managed the application development teams, but with recent growth and shifts, I’ve moved to the Marketing and Com...

Training Pays Off

less than 1 minute read

Mario Frangoulis sings a wonderful cover of the Moody Blues song, “Nights in White Satin.” This guy has an amazing voice. It’s a great song, but put it in It...

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Travel

Recent Travel Drinking

less than 1 minute read

I haven’t posted in a while, and want to get back to recording my thoughts and fun hobby activities.

The First Real Ride of Spring

less than 1 minute read

Yesterday was the first real ride of spring. The weather was perfect, and the Todd and I headed north up the coast for a bit, then across the Mayport Ferry, ...

AM Damp

2 minute read

Yeah! I finally got the bike out this am for a quick ride. It’s been a long time. The forecast is for a nice sunny day, but it was foggy and damp this mornin...

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Sewing

Whiskey Knits Project Bag

less than 1 minute read

I love a good project bag, and I wanted a really big project bag for my checkmate sweater. So I dug my sewing machine out of the closet and got to work. Chec...

Day of the Dead Party Costume Plans

less than 1 minute read

My plan is a dark vest with a themed lining, long sleeve shirt, and dark pants. To tie it all together, I found these great masks on ebay.

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Personal

My Big Ass Gay Pity Party

3 minute read

I had a rough day yesterday. I let myself go to a dark place and the resulting big ass pity party wasn’t pretty.

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Science

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Language Learning

Duolingo Milestone

1 minute read

I hit a numeric milestone in Duolingo yesterday, 300 days learning Spanish.

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Exercise

Walking more

less than 1 minute read

I’ve been trying to walk more. Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, I’ve gotten even more used to just sitting ‘at home’ in front of a couple of computers fo...

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