Weeknotes 205

I haven’t hung any Christmas decorations yet. In fact, the Halloween bats are still up. I’m going to see if I can style it out by saying they’re Christmas bats.

I set aside Tuesday evening to watch the new Hbomberguy video about plagiarism. It’s long but brilliant and well worth your time.

On Thursday I went to a festive meal with Russell & Anne & friends. It was nice to see everyone even though I felt a bit under the weather and had to go home early like a big baby.

I got an email a week ago telling me my gym was closed temporarily, and another on Friday saying it wouldn’t be reopening for another week and a half. While in principle this is brilliant because it gives me a guilt-free excuse to spend an extra hour in bed each weekday morning, in practice I’ve put on weight and feel crap, so let’s call it even.

I bought the recommended adapter for Orion so I could use my iPad as an occasional HDMI monitor (e.g. for unlocking my headless Mac mini when it boots). The adapter didn’t work so I returned it and deleted the app. Cool story.

I’ve seen a surprising number of people express the idea — apparently sincerely? — that they’re newly motivated to survive until 2025 because that’s when Grand Theft Auto VI comes out. It’s good to have something to live for I suppose. The trailer has impressive graphics but I’ve never played a GTA game and am therefore unlikely to play this one.

I watched the first half of Bodies and it’s pacy enough to hold my interest so far, although (as James foretold) it’s hard to tell whether it’s actually good.

Unusually I’m enjoying its 1890s setting a lot more than its juvenile depiction of the future, probably because Victorian London reminds me of Syndicate, the one good Assassin’s Creed game. The scenes set in contemporary Britain suffer from too much hackneyed BBC thriller business but that seems to be standard these days.

Tekin linked to a Ted Chiang article which I’d somehow missed when it came out in May, so it’s new to me and that’s all the excuse I need to sound my “new Ted Chiang” alarm.

For me this is perfect writing, a glass of iced water in the scorched desert of Content: no rambling anecdotes, no lengthy quotations with only gnomic vibes to tie them together, just crisp and persuasive prose whose goal is to make the reader feel smart and informed, not to show how smart and informed the author is. I wish he wrote more often but I’m so glad to have even this much.

Sorry, but I’m really enjoying the stupid coffee grinder.