Notes on Gardening (Part 228): The Basil that really stands out

Dear Interweb,

Continues from my previous post.

Fueled by the unexpected success of my third attempt at germinating basil seeds, I've found myself with an abundance of seedlings. To unlock the herb's full potential, I've embarked on an experiment, testing numerous environmental conditions and fine-tuning my approach as I go to uncover the optimal growing method.

Among the Basil seedlings in the seedling tray below, one particular stands out remarkably, as pictured below:

After carefully separating these Basil seedlings into individual compartment in seedling tray, I arranged them based on size. As you can see, all the seedlings exposed to the same environmental factors. Therefore, I was rather intrigued why this particular Basil seedling (plant would be the right word now judging from its size) has grown so much taller than the others.

Genetic variations or qualities likely play a significant role here. This is probably the most compelling explanation so far.

Till the next post.

Yours truly,
Ang

Notes on Photography (Part 137): Possible to plant Tulip in tropical climate?

Dear Interweb,

Continues from my previous post.

Yet another photo of seed, or rather Tulip bulbs taken while I was in the transit, many moons ago, around 2014, as pictured below. My research suggests that tulips can thrive in tropical climates if you select varieties with a low chilling requirement. You can then mimic winter by vernalizing the bulbs for 4 to 6 weeks in the refrigerator, which is crucial for flower development.

Your photo collection will forever chronicle a story that deeply resonates with you, particularly those long-held passions you once yearned to explore, but that got swept aside in the relentless tide of modern life.

Back to photography.

If you spot the photo, it was taken in a square format during a time when I was honing my photographic eye with that aspect ratio. But I bet you missed how, due to the certain lighting angle, the packaging pops in the centre, while all the other packages are subtly darkened.

Till the next post.

Yours truly,
Ang

Notes on Elixir/Erlang Programming (Part 3): Tweaking the default Erlang GitHub CI workflow configuration

Dear Interweb,

Continues from my previous post.

During the housekeeping of the Erlang GitHub CI workflow template for an Erlang project, I learned several valuable insights. To illustrate these insights, let's consider one of my own Erlang pet projects, created many moons ago. The auto-generated GitHub CI workflow template for this Erlang project is shown below for this example.

name: Erlang CI

on:
  push:
    branches: [ "master" ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ "master" ]

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    container:
      image: erlang:22.0.7

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - name: Compile
      run: rebar3 compile
    - name: Run tests
      run: rebar3 do eunit, ct

First, to leverage the up-to-date fixes, we recommend setting the Erlang/OTP version in the Docker image from 22.0.7 to the latest version of major version 22 only, as shown below:

    container:
      image: erlang:22

Examining the Dockerfile for Erlang/OTP 22 reveals that the OTP version has already been configured to use the latest patched release of 22.3.4.27, as indicated below:

ENV OTP_VERSION="22.3.4.27" \
    REBAR3_VERSION="3.23.0"

Next, instead of simply running our CI against a single OTP version, let's expand it to encompass all supported versions. The Erlang Docker page, right now, provides a list of supported images, ranging from OTP 20 to OTP 27. To achieve this, we'll update our workflow template as follows:

    container:
      image: erlang:${{matrix.otp}}
      
    strategy:
      matrix:
        otp: [20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27]

Optionally, we can thoroughly test the GitHub workflow, execute all CI jobs against every OTP version, irrespective of error outcomes, all at once. We can achieve this by setting the following flag:

    continue-on-error: true

Finally, here's what our final GitHub workflow configuration file for an Erlang project would look like:

name: Erlang CI

on:
  push:
    branches: [ "master" ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ "master" ]

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    continue-on-error: true
    
    container:
      image: erlang:${{matrix.otp}}
      
    strategy:
      matrix:
        otp: [20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27]

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - name: Compile
      run: rebar3 compile
    - name: Run tests
      run: rebar3 do eunit, ct

Till the next post.

Yours truly,
Ang

Notes on Gardening (Part 228): Explore Cacti?

Dear Interweb,

Continues from my previous post.

While browsing the food items at the grocery store, I spotted these adorable micro Cacti gardens, as pictured below. Their unique charm sparked a sudden rethink of my plans for the empty space in my front yard. 

Though everyone has bought a tiny, cute cactus in a small pot at some point, only to fail to keep it alive, cactuses weren't on my list of plants to explore. However, given the rocky and stony front yard, I might need to rethink my planting plan.

While the thick, waxy leaves and stems of Cacti hold a strange fascination for me, their growth frustrates me. It's simply too slow. On average, most species inch along at only 1 to 3 cm annually. Yes, within a whole year! That's practically akin to planting a tree and waiting for it to sprout.

Till the next post.

Yours truly,
Ang

This Week in Review (TWIR): 2024 Week 25

Dear Interweb,

Continues from my previous post.

Health
To empower myself to pursue other things actively, and healthily by improving your quality of life in the long run.

7 hours of sleep daily. Despite clocking a consistent 7 hours of sleep each night, I still felt more fatigued compared to last week. Sharp dips in energy after dinner plagued some days, likely due to illness. Otherwise, my sleep schedule remained fairly consistent, even if the exact timing varied drastically from day to day.

5,000 walking steps daily. Seeing the upward trend (more yellowish and orangish) in the first two quarters, we can confidently increase the threshold figure from 4,500 to 5,000 walking steps per day. Overall, my average walking steps remained steady above the threshold value, except for two mid-week days when I felt feverish and cut back on toiling the garden under the night sky. Unfortunately, I still experience sporadic pain while walking and squatting, especially after waking up. Learning from experience, we will implement the necessary adjustments before bedtime to address the issue, as a full recovery will likely take time.

168 intermittent fasting. Throughout the week, I've been experiencing strange hunger pangs, not just at midnight, but throughout the day as well. Perhaps it's because my food portions have been small, and my body was reacting to that.

211/221 (plants/protein/carbs) diet. Mostly outside foods, which explained the high carbs' food intake over the week, which caused the weight to fluctuate a bit on the higher end. Nevertheless, the weight remains steady as these changes were merely water weight.

6-minute or 7-minute workout. I discovered that there are four essential workout forms: endurance (cardio), strength, balance, and flexibility. To achieve optimal well-being, we need to integrate these elements into our daily routines and strike a healthy balance. While activities like toiling in the garden under the stars, tackling household chores, and embarking on occasional photo walks are commendable, they represent a foundational level of fitness.

Meditation

To exercise your mind.

Sitting meditation for 1, 5, or 10 minutes. I incorporated many short, one-minute meditation sessions throughout my blood pressure measurement routine. Since resting for at least a minute is necessary before each blood pressure reading, I strategically inserted these meditation breaks. On some days, I conducted longer meditation sessions lasting from 3 (25 breaths) to 5 minutes (50 breaths).

Walking meditation for 1 to 5 minutes. Maintains mindfulness as usual, especially due to sporadic and relapsed foot injury.

Mentally noting your thoughts, emotions, and feelings. Despite experiencing fevers and occasional root pains throughout the week, I remained surprisingly stoic, exhibiting a calm and collected thoughts.

Cooking
Take control of our consumption, and manage it ourselves, rather than relying on others, and learn new skill.

Explore different combination of oatmeals. Not as often as I like, but good to clear this off the list as soon as possible.

Learn to cook different egg recipes. Likewise, but just regular soft-boil eggs.

Decluttering

To adopt a minimalist lifestyle.

On the way to the kitchen, clear one item from any areas within the house. This week's progress has been sluggish, but we've made significant headway by recycling major items, even though we still need to clear out some broken junks even more.

Set a timer for 2 to 5 minutes, and clean as much as you can. Not as often as I like to be.

Mop, or sweep the house every 2-4-6 day of the week. Most days, in all places like balcony and porch.

Reading
To improve my writing, consume wisely, and boost my mental health.

Testing Elixir. Put this on hold as I stumbled upon and bought (yes, it has been a while) a health-related book in Chinese, which I expect to devour it within days and be back on track.

Adopting Erlang. Likewise.

Coding

To enjoy building stuff, learn, and contribute back to the FLOSS communities.

Daily PR contributions (documentations, CI, or test cases) to Python, Elixir, Erlang, Rust, and Ruby (PEERR), or any projects that are relevant to your work, or interests. The regular hopping of GitHub repositories and submitting trivial fixes for minor typos. In additional, I have also started to resume contributions to various upstream Erlang and Elixir dependencies used in our projects, following the releases of Elixir 1.17.0 and Erlang/OTP 27.0.

Recreation pet projects. Successfully migrated all my Python pet projects from Tox to Nox. While a few lingering issues remain, I'll address them this week. I'll also write a post soon about the migration process.

Writing
To communicate, and convey my thoughts more effectively, and document my progress, and discoveries in the projects I explore.

Publish two posts per day, and read back old posts. Mostly alternating between the usual topic on gardening and photography, and resumed my posts on Erlang/Elixir programming itself again.

Review and update your weekly while writing your daily posts. Still alternating on jotting down the bulk of my thoughts both digitally or analogously.

 

Blog about interesting PR or libraries on Python, Elixir, Erlang, or Rust (PEER). Building on the recent PR I submitted, I have a wealth of material to write about in the coming week.

Fish keeping
To experience the joy of fish keeping, and breeding.

Yellow-blue rack. The cardboard remains incomplete, and it's the right time we resumed our stalled home improvement projects.

Find fish species for the ecosystem of the plastic containers in the outdoor "ponds". For now, we've chosen to introduce more Guppies to the upper level of the outdoor "ponds". These fishes captivate viewers from above, marking their place as fascinating additions to the ecosystem.

Gardening
To improve your health, connect with nature, and learn a new skill.

Growing plants (Portulaca, and other) from seeds. Since I have finished my potting for most outdoor seedlings, it's time to resume another round of seeds germination attempts. 

Setting three new different workspaces for gardening works. Still experimenting with the optimal arrangement or environment to grow these seedlings.

Research on microprogration or in vitro stem segment culture. See what we can do next to start micropropagation with Portulaca plants.

Photography
To capture memories, and explore your creativity by expressing your thoughts through stories.

Get the microscope for macro photography. Still contemplating on which model that fits my budget.

Till the next post.

Yours truly,
Ang

Notes on Gardening (Part 227): Factors that affect Moss rose blooming duration

Dear Interweb,

Continues from my previous post.

If you recall, I have a variety Portulaca (Moss rose) plant with large petal that I purchased from a nursery. Since it acclimated to its new environment and began blooming, I've noticed its flowers only open for about an hour, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Then, these flower petals will close up until the next day.

However, starting from a few days back, I have noticed that the blooming period of this plant have extended, until noon, as pictured below:

I'm curious about the factors that might have influenced the blooming of these flowers. I've also observed similar phenomena with Moss roses in the open garden.  Could the recent increase in rainfall have altered the soil pH, making it more acidic? Alternatively, could the recent application of a balanced 5:5:5 NPK fertilizer be a contributing factor?

The coming days will reveal whether the blooming patterns hold. My suspicion is that fertilizer application is the key factor, since I haven't fertilized this plant in quite some time.

Till the next post.

Yours truly,
Ang