Weeknotes 270

The afternoon sun’s streaming through the open windows. We’re well into meteorological spring, if not yet astronomical. 🌱

Four times at the gym. Over time I hope to approach the contentious optimum of three and a half visits per week.

I made a huge pot of ratatouille last Sunday and ate it for lunch all week. Easy, cheap and delicious.

No pancakes this year. If I’m ostentatiously denying myself beer then I’m definitely not allowed a bowlful of batter.

Only an hour and a half of Children of Time left. Towards the end it’s becoming an odd mixture of the early chapters’ medium-firm sci-fi (e.g. semi-plausible evolutionary biology) and a crescendo of shameless nonsense (e.g. “then they used █ ██ ███ to ████ ██ ██ and everyone clapped”). It’s fun though.

Another beautiful Severance episode, although this one seems to have gone down particularly badly with some audiences. I really liked it and I’m relieved the show is breaking out of its confines and demonstrating more interest in its secondary characters. It continues to be spectacular to look at and impressively well-performed.

I tried to start season two of Twin Peaks by sneaking in May the Giant Be with You before bed, forgetting that it’s an hour and a half long. But I’m not going to stop a TV episode partway through — what am I, a coward? — so I sleepily stuck it out. It’s a great, creepy episode but also an obvious turning point for the show and I’m anticipating the loss of momentum and focus I know is coming next.

I saw Presence, a well-made ghost film with an interesting gimmick. The plot didn’t make much sense and the performances weren’t great but it was a fun quick watch that was successfully carried by the novelty of its idea. It would make a good double bill with In a Violent Nature.

I started watching Nosferatu, a long and self-serious film about Ahti the janitor living in a big spooky black & white castle. This style came off as charming and intimate in The Witch but crosses the line into overwrought and indulgent when inflated to a much bigger length, scope and budget.

I got about halfway through before I succumbed to the urge to go to sleep like a coward. I’ll probably watch the rest… probably.

I finished Life is Strange: Double Exposure which was ultimately not that good. I did appreciate the nostalgic vibes but it wasn’t up to the standard of the original, the plot became emotionally incoherent at its conclusion, and I don’t expect I’ll bother next time Max Caulfield returns.

This weekend I’ve been playing Split Fiction and enjoying it. It’s very forgiving and optimised for playful, frantic fun. I like the two protagonists more than the bickering couple in It Takes Two and its setting and story are generally more interesting to me.

tomstu.art/daylight tells me that a three-week period of transatlantic time zone confusion begins today.