Weeknotes 239

Another week of uncomfortably high temperatures. I worked alone in the office on Monday just to have some air conditioning. It was too cold in there but that’s easier to deal with than the heat.

On Monday night I made a delicious chopped salad from a Meera Sodha recipe and it fed me all week. (Doesn’t 120ml of olive oil seem like way too much? I used about half that.)

The first day of a new month somehow feels more significant to me than any other, so I exploited that weakness for meaningless numerology to get myself to the gym on Thursday and begin putting the health disaster of July behind me. Out of bed before 6am, an hour on the treadmill, then home in time for breakfast. ✅

Fat hot rain fell on Thursday night and the temperature became more tolerable.

I made it back to the gym on Saturday in an attempt to establish an alternating-days rhythm. We’ll see how long I can stick to it.

Episode seven of House of the Dragon was an excellent return to form in which things actually happened at last. In parts it felt more like Alien than a fantasy TV show and made me realise for the first time how eldritch and monstrous the dragons are. Very good!

I haven’t watched any more Lady in the Lake or Sunny yet, making it a bit less likely that I ever will.

I was on the fence about animated ey ’em up Thank Goodness You’re Here and only took the plunge when Paul mentioned the involvement of David Ferguson.

It’s unique and lovingly made but as a game it’s not my cup of tea. If anything it makes me appreciate the understated, timeless and near-wordless charm of Untitled Goose Game even more; Thank Goodness is overflowing with jokey text and dialogue and has the trappings of being charming but, for me, came across as a bit tiresome instead.

It’s only a couple of hours long and I intended to play the whole thing to give it a fair shot. After a while the gameplay and relentless wackiness became a slog and I couldn’t motivate myself to keep going so I just stopped. Oh well. I think it’s fair to say I’d have enjoyed passively watching it as a cartoon more than playing it as a game.

Don’t listen to me though. It has excellent reviews! You’ll probably like it.

I appreciated the bit where you have to unblock a gutter.

Two YouTube highlights I’ve rewatched too many times, both genuinely life-affirming in their own way:

1. Camille arguing about the Ship of Theseus; and

2. Limmy watching a nuclear war from space.

I know your eyes still have that sparkle in them. You’re speaking to history.

Let the record show that I read two books this weekend, although they were both on technical topics so don’t really count.

I went to AV Club in search of a House of the Dragon recap and exclaimed aloud, “why does AV Club look like a WordPress site now?”. Turns out it’s because it’s a WordPress site now.

Happy tenth birthday to my pinned tweet, rendered more accurate by each passing year, and also by the baffling ordeal I endured to retrieve its URL. ♻️

Remember: don’t be fooled by the fake bank holiday.