Weeknotes 267

Hi. Another 15 years to go until Love Tuesday. Hang in there.

It’s more than two weeks away, but I must remember to make those sourdough pancakes again.

Conversely, I made it to the gym four times this week and it’s having the desired effect on my eating habits. No booze yet either. I continue to feel slightly better.

I’m still enjoying Children of Time. It’s an easy… read? listen?… and the plot is smart and pacy enough to hold my attention for an hour at a time, with enough intrigue to keep me actively looking forward to the next instalment.

I’ve got ten hours left which’ll be good for another fortnight at this rate, and then the rest of the trilogy is another thirty-odd hours. It’s reassuring to know I’m not going to run out of gym listening material for a while.

It’s cold outside but starting to get lighter. Yesterday I went for a pleasant dander down to Columbia Road to buy some beans and drink the free cup of coffee that comes with them. That’s what I did this week.

Once every few months I open LinkedIn and boggle at the inanity I find there. People I know — sometimes even sensible people I‘ve worked with! — post the most unhinged and undignified drivel imaginable, right there for the whole professional world to see. At first I found it shocking but, like so many horrors, it’s now become commonplace enough to seem mundane.

Right now a large segment of its population is infested with AI brain worms and grifting as if their lives depend upon it, which perhaps they do. I’m starting to think that exposing myself to this abasement isn’t worth the marginal benefit of keeping track of who’s moved to which company.

Severance was more promising this week and less reliant on filler. We’re halfway now; I hope they can start resolving some mysteries as we approach the finale. I’m particularly curious to see how well episode seven works given it was written by the allegedly feuding showrunner & producer.

I watched The Gorge last night and, well, I thought it was silly, weird fun. It’s borderline nonsensical but beautifully shot with great music and occasional Southern Reach vibes. Several of its individual components were impressive, they just didn’t hold together well enough to actually form a good film.

Despite the film being weakened by an overly conventional structure, I noticed myself feeling relieved it steered clear of tedious MCU-style quipping. The closest it came was a wink-wink gag about chess & drums, but even that was charming enough to make me smile rather than groan.

Speaking of music, it took me a little while to get around to watching the new live Knower video since I often don’t enjoy footage of their shows — Genevieve’s voice is usually too low in the mix and a lot of the other detail is lost. But this one’s brilliant, presumably in part because it’s been properly mixed and overdubbed in places to clean it up. All of the songs are snippets so I really hope they release a complete set in this style. I’d pay good money.

It also took me several sessions to get all the way through Simon Anthony’s 3½-hour solve of a very difficult puzzle. His resilience in the face of an almost impossible challenge is remarkable and a little bit inspiring.