Weeknotes 113

We are, for now, still here, so let’s do this again.

WEEKEND BAKING: I made more croissants and they were slightly better than last time.

With the same dough I improvised some clumsy-but-tasty peach Danish pastries.

I also baked a loaf of sesame sourdough.

And that’s all the baking.

WEEKNIGHT GAMING: I streamed some more Horizon Forbidden West. I’m enjoying it even if I’m not getting much better.

I can tell that it’s not quite sinking its hooks into me the way that, say, The Last of Us or Portal 2 did, because I find myself thinking a lot about the mechanics of the game rather than suspending disbelief and letting its world wash over me. Most of the side quests are chosen from a small number of fairly dull templates (retrieve something, track something, kill something) and I don’t find the characters compelling enough to have any real emotional investment in what’s happening. But the sheer scale is impressive and it’s fun enough to explore & experiment as long as I don’t expect myself to become deeply engaged.

One recent highlight was the Restless Weald Relic Ruin which made me smile by using the environment in a couple of surprising ways. And although I found ineptly fighting the Grimhorn more frustrating than exciting, it did feel satisfying to finally kill it.

By far the most enjoyable aspect is friends hanging out in the chat and providing jokes and advice while I stream, so thank you to everyone who did that.

On Wednesday night I boarded an actual train to the outer wilds of north London for a pub trip with Murray. This was my first time on public transport since the pandemic hit, as well as my first chance to drink in a properly busy pub. It felt good to do another normal thing. I didn’t get COVID. 😷

Despite it having nothing at all to do with me, I still feel very proud of how good Alice is in this interview about women and technology.

Nat & I are onto season 2 of Columbo and it continues to be good. The episode A Stitch in Crime was a particular highlight: it really leans into the gentle comedy without losing the serious tone of a murder investigation.

I don’t understand why every season 2 episode begins with a few seconds of flash-forward spoiler clips which I have to ignore or skip past. I don’t remember this being a feature of Columbo so I hope future seasons drop it.

After discovering how much a Thunderbolt hub could improve my life — i.e. by a barely perceptible amount which matters only to me — I decided to also “invest in” a keyboard with Touch ID.

Again it felt unwise to spend a significant amount of money on something as uninteresting as a keyboard, but again it’s turned out to definitely be worth it. I unlock my computer and 1Password tens of times per day, so being freed from the chore of typing long passwords over and over is a huge relief. It’s impressively fast, too, unlocking in as much time as it takes me to depress the button to wake the computer in the first place.

Also, my previous keyboard had a numpad and I’m relieved to be shot of it. What do I look like, an accountant?