Weeknotes 262

Hello. Everything’s going to be great.

It’s been −4 °C this weekend. I record this to remind Summer Me that even though putting the heating on seems unthinkable in the sweltering hell of July, it’s essential in January. Likewise the prospect of opening the window at the moment is ridiculous but I know I’ll be doing it at every opportunity later in the year. Hopefully this will get it through my head that we do different things at different times.

A year ago today I broke my foot. It’s basically healed but doesn’t feel quite the same as before and presumably never will. It’s not painful any more, not really, but it does ache occasionally. I sometimes catch myself not walking fully normally (I think I’m… overpronating?) which I suspect is the result of habit rather than any ongoing injury.

Still, just for me, everyone please be extra careful today and don’t break your foot. I appreciate your diligence on this matter.

After three weeks of peaceful nights I slept terribly last Sunday thanks to an all-consuming anxiety dream about going back to work. Within the first hour of reopening my laptop on Monday morning my heart rate was up, so that wasn’t a great start. But three fun days spent with my officemates since then have made me feel better about it.

I almost decided to stop doing worknotes in a fit of pique — given how busy I already am, why the hell do I insist upon creating extra work for no reason? — but by Friday I’d calmed down and just bashed out any old shit with no regard for quality, you know, like I do here.

Dexter: Original Sin continues to be pretty watchable. The most entertaining part is the inexplicable cartoon chomping sound during the opening credits.

I finished rewatching The Last of Us. It’s a truly great show and I appreciated it more the second time around. There’s a huge amount of detail visible in the UHD Blu-ray I watched and, well, it’s a different and more engrossing experience to see the whole season in a handful of sittings instead of spreading it out over nine weeks. Definitely one of my all-time favourites.

This time I was slightly resistant to how Left Behind interrupts the pacing at a crucial point in the story. I don’t think I minded at all when I was watching the show week-by-week, and it’s not a problem in the video game since The Last of Us: Left Behind DLC was released the year after the main game, but here it feels like a sudden lull which defuses the tension and momentum that’s been built up. On balance, though, it’s still a beautiful episode and I’m glad they made it. I suppose I can move it to the end next time if I really want to.

I also rewatched Severance in two big chunks over the weekend and, again, enjoyed it more this time. It’s visually very impressive, the performances and music are great, and I’d either forgotten or not noticed before how straightforwardly funny it is in places.

Its narrative reach exceeds its grasp a bit: it’s easy to pile up mystery upon weird mystery but much harder to tie them up in a satisfying way, and these nine episodes don’t even try to do that. Lost looms large.

Look, I don’t want to be that guy, but having a working dishwasher is really life-changing.