Weeknotes 141

Darker mornings, darker evenings. 🍂🌧️🌃

All UK news, all week: the Queen remains dead.

I’ve seen The Queue a few times as I’ve been crossing the Thames. It’s hard to ignore how strange, huge and alienating it is.

The government messaging around it has been incompetent and dystopian, which is what she would have wanted.

Lucy summed it up perfectly:

In a way we’re ALL in a massive queue leading to a coffin

I was expecting to have started on a couple of major projects by now, but those have been delayed for reasons beyond my control, so instead I get to rest some more.

Having reflected upon my feelings about a few tentative work conversations, I’ve accepted I’m taking an extended break. I’m not ready to go back to a full-time job yet, so I’m just telling people I’m on sabbatical, which sounds grander than being unemployed.

Plus, you know, I’ve realised that’s what I’m doing. The combination of reading, cycling, tinkering with code, napping, exercising, drinking coffee, watching videos and meeting friends is so beneficial for my mental health that I don’t want to give it up yet.

It does feel weird to have temporarily stepped out of the game that everyone else is playing. I feel both weightless and purposeless. I’ll be back in it soon enough, probably.

YouTube is a total lifesaver at the moment. I don’t know what I’d do without it.

Sudoku aside, this week’s oddly compelling viewing included a diorama of Mel Gibson’s arrest (via Alice via Phil via Matt) and a meticulous remake of a childhood flipbook. There’s something irresistible about methodical displays of competence.

On Monday I went to the first in-person LRUG meeting since early 2020. It was nice to be back at something semi-familiar, even though it served as another stark reminder that I’ve forgotten how to talk to people or socialise.

On Friday I had morning coffee with Simon and afternoon coffee with Melinda, which was lovely. The caffeine kept me awake until Saturday morning.

POPCORN ADDENDUM: I omitted some crucial information when I wrote about making popcorn a while ago. It turns out it’s important to occasionally shake the kernels around in the pan during cooking so that they heat evenly. I got lazy and stopped doing this and the popcorn became much worse: smaller and tougher pieces; more unpopped kernels; more burned bits. Heed my warning.

My local gym switched its equipment to measure distances in miles rather than kilometers. They didn’t announce it or anything, just silently updated the settings on every machine overnight and let everyone discover the change independently.

I’m finding it hard to adjust because I’ve been exercising in metric on this equipment for years and my brain is really dialled into the specific numbers. It was definitely alarming the first time I stepped onto a treadmill at what I thought was my usual speed and it started going 60% faster.

I find it hard to accept how dull The Rings of Power is. How does this happen? If only they’d had one person working on it whose job was to check whether it was incredibly boring. I would’ve been happy to do it for a modest fee.

I couldn’t tell you anything that’s happening or why; I don’t know who anyone is or understand what they want. Amazing.

Homeland season six was ridiculous all the way through but it’s too late to turn back now. Also, episode nine opens with a single shot of Carrie’s face that lasts for nearly two and a half minutes and Claire Danes really won me back over with it.

In the first episode of season seven, during a particularly unnecessary bit of spy shit, a character asks “is the spy shit really necessary?”, which made me laugh.