Weeknotes 229

It’s getting summery in London. At least, it’s getting how I think summer should be (twenty degrees, warm daylight, cool breeze) rather than what it’ll actually be like (thirty-five degrees, baking sun, men shouting). I’m enjoying it while it lasts.

For example, on Monday I took the opportunity to wander over to Spitalfields with my teammate at lunchtime, buy some Ethiopian food and eat it on a bench in the park. It’s been a busy week so it was nice to take a break and get some fresh air and sunshine.

Mind you, it was bucketing down when I rode to the hospital on Tuesday for yet another foot X-ray. It revealed that my broken bone is finally healing for real so they discharged me. 🙌🏻

Recency bias makes it tempting to attribute this to calcium, but when you compare January to March to now it’s fairly linear progress, so the passage of time might deserve some credit too.

On the other hand, the rock evidently does keep tigers away — that’s just science — so I’m going to keep taking the ninny for now.

I don’t especially like how wonky the healed bone is. A doctor told me it‘ll gradually reshape itself but that might be well-meaning bollocks. I suppose the aesthetics of my innards don’t matter as long as they work properly.

Writing up my gutter woes shook loose a thought which should’ve occurred long ago: what if the ineffective hole I unblocked is not actually the primary one, but merely an overflow? What if the real drain is at my neighbour’s end, clogged with a heap of dead pigeons?

I’ve got a man coming round next week to investigate. If that guess turns out to be correct then I’ll be both relieved and annoyed with myself for suffering through a blocked gutter for years instead of sorting it out immediately. Anyway, we’ll see.

I haven’t officially given up on Ripley yet, but I also haven’t watched any more of it, so what’s the difference?

I did watch the first couple of episodes of Dark Matter — proof, if proof be need be, of my theory that sci-fi which explains Schrödinger’s cat in the first ten minutes is unlikely to be much good.

I love Jennifer Connelly but she’s miscast in this. The writing’s pretty weak and, as with 3 Body Problem, the fantastical premise is more plausible than the dialogue between the “scientists”.

I played more Animal Well. I can’t decide whether I’m finding it intriguing or frustrating. I’ve just about resisted the temptation to look anything up online (i.e. cheat) but it’s such hard work to get anywhere that I’ve come extremely close.

While I admire the intent behind making something mysterious, in practice the investigation of this game’s mysteries boils down to “try everything everywhere and see what randomly works”, which requires more brute force than deduction. I’m making progress, but most of the breakthroughs have been achieved through dogged persistence instead of understanding, which isn’t very satisfying, and at times it feels like it’s testing my patience more than my skill or insight.

There’s a certain nostalgia associated with this vibe — like being stuck indoors with an 8-bit home computer over the summer holidays desperately trying to beat the only game available — but I’m not sure it has intrinsic value in 2024. We have Fez at home.

However, I must admit there have been a couple of extremely satisfying puzzles so I’m not ready to give up on it yet.

No royal deaths or coronations this year, so only two bank holidays in May. Disappointing but I’ll take it.

Have a good long weekend. ☀️