Weeknotes 261

Happy new year! On a global scale I don’t think it’s likely to go very well but I hope your corner of it is fine.

2025 = 45². It’s been 89 years since the last square-numbered year and it’ll be 91 years until the next one. We’re still just about within the window where it’s possible for a person to live long enough to experience two such years, although I suppose human life expectancy has increased dramatically since the last one, so maybe it’ll remain feasible for a while.

Regardless, I think it’s safe to assume this’ll be my only one.

I’ve seen it pointed out in a few places that it’s remarkable that (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9)² = 1³ + 2³ + 3³ + 4³ + 5³ + 6³ + 7³ + 8³ + 9³ = 2025. It’s definitely surprising but it’s not a coincidence, it’s Nicomachus’s theorem.

The previous two weeks were mainly concerned with discharging responsibilities. This week I’ve been able to truly relax and not have anything depending upon me. I find the logistics of Christmas exhausting so it’s largely a relief when it’s all over for another year and I can finally chill.

In hindsight I spent a lot of 2024 not feeling very chill. This year I’m going to make a conscious effort not to read any information or engage in any conversations which make my chest tighten or my blood pressure increase. Life’s too short and my actions don’t matter enough to be worth stressing myself out. I doubt I’ll achieve the dreamlike serenity of Peter Gibbons from Office Space but it’s something to aim for.

On Sunday I popped to Soho for beers with Gabi & Rafael while they were briefly in town. This made me realise I really miss my regular conversations with Gabi; I wish we kept in touch more but it’s difficult to do at a distance.

On Monday I went to Josh & Katie’s for a few pre-NYE drinks, an embarrassingly good meal, and a game of Quilts & Cats of Calico which my merry brain struggled to understand quickly enough to be competent.

On New Year’s Eve itself I had sushi for lunch at Ima. The service was a bit chaotic and the food was (like everywhere now) way more expensive than I expected, but it was tasty and I’ll probably go again, despite the whole notion of eating a meal in a restaurant now seeming ludicrously decadent.

I have, as far as I can remember, never been invited to — let alone attended — a New Year’s Eve party. I expect that’s genuinely fine. I watched the high-latency countdown to “midnight” on YouTube and fell asleep.

On New Year’s Day I bought another 12-month gym membership, the previous one having silently expired sometime in October without me noticing. I’d been waiting for the perfect time to renew it, ideally on a day when I actually felt like going to the gym so I could believe I was getting my money’s worth, but eventually accepted that’s a recipe for never doing it. So it’s done now, and I’ll inevitably waste some days until I start using it, but at least one of the many psychic barriers to regular exercise has been removed.

On Friday I bought a plunger and unblocked the kitchen sink. That felt like an achievement.

Among all this excitement I have had time to watch a few things. For example, I saw The Boy and the Heron, which was very beautiful unstructured nonsense, like listening to someone describe one of their dreams at great length. After a while my brain gave out and I had to stop watching it.

I watched Heretic which was engaging and surprisingly funny. It held my attention and kept me curious all the way through. I do wonder whether Hugh Grant has ever heard the melody of Creep.

I played Neva which turned out to be an almost painfully beautiful game. Aside from its brilliant artwork I really enjoyed its gentle traversal puzzles, unannoying combat and heartfelt soundtrack. I finished the whole thing in a couple of sittings and even collected all the hidden bits which provided a fun extra challenge with a nice treat at the end. Recommended.

Neva is so good that it gets away with committing one of the cardinal sins of video games: it only lets you pause at certain times, so if you get interrupted and want to step away from the controller you might be out of luck. Argh, just let me pause whenever I want to! It doesn’t matter whether it’s outside of normal gameplay, like a cutscene or whatever! The pause button should always pause!

It was with low expectations that I watched the first couple of episodes of Dexter: Original Sin, but hey, it’s quite a lot better than I thought it would be. Everyone in it is good (except a weirdly miscast Sarah Michelle Gellar) and it does an admirable job of recreating the specific characters and overall vibe of the good early seasons of Dexter. Ignore Christian Slater’s rubbery de-aged face in the flashbacks-within-the-flashback and it’s a pretty good show so far.

The Traitors is back on, as ridiculous and compelling as ever, and of course I’m enjoying it. It’s very funny that the contestants have no information to go on and are left with no choice but to hallucinate whatever ridiculous narrative makes them feel comfortable. Brilliant. Percentages abound so I can already see I’m going to have to fire up my supercut script again.

I’ve started rewatching The Last of Us and it really is remarkable television. I’d forgotten just how excellent the first episode is, and seeing it again — this time with glasses, a better TV, and no anxiety about the possibility of it being rubbish — heightens my appreciation for the amount of detail and nuance they managed to pack into it. I’m excited to watch the rest.

I haven’t seen the new Bobby Fingers yet. I’m saving it for a rainy day.

Back to work tomorrow. I don’t normally dread Mondays but this one is going to be a shock to the system after three weeks off.