Weeknotes 286

Well, that’s the first half of 2025 done with. Did you smash all your targets? Same.

Since the solstice on 21 June the sun hasn’t set until 21:21 every night and the evening light has felt magical. It rained on Tuesday and became cooler for most of the week until it started warming back up yesterday. Next week’s going to be boiling again. 🥵

Gym: three. Not much, but something. Occasionally I feel like I’m only doing the bare minimum, so then I have to remind myself the actual minimum is zero, and that regularly getting to the gym before 6am is a legitimate accomplishment.

I’m not making any more progress but my weight is firmly within “healthy” territory so I’ll be happy if I can keep it there.

A work-event week. I went into the office on Monday to welcome a new starter and ended up at Tofu Vegan for an impressively tasty lunch with my teammates. In the afternoon I unveiled some citrus fruit and freeze-dried miracle berries — channelling Cheathco 2011 — and we had fun sucking on lemons and looking surprised. 😳

Thursday afternoon was the summer party at Flight Club. It was well-organised and everyone had a good time throwing darts inexpertly, but it became noisy and crowded so I slipped away after a couple of hours and came home to do some peaceful typing instead.

On Friday night I got free tickets to a work screening of F1 at the Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square. I’d never ordinarily pay to watch a film there (or, increasingly, any cinema) but it’s a very spacious and comfortable venue so I was happy for the opportunity to see what it’s like.

I arrived a bit early so I could get a good seat, followed the stream of punters past one roped-off doorway and through another, and settled into my vast reclining chair. I was surprised when the trailers for Together, Weapons and The Conjuring: Last Rites played, since none of those seemed appropriate for the film, but didn’t think much of it.

Then the BBFC certificate for 28 Years Later appeared and I realised I’d walked into the wrong screen by mistake. I considered legging it and bursting through the doors of the other screen but… well, it’s a film I was already interested in seeing, and I didn’t want to cause a disturbance, so instead I thought “this’ll be good for weeknotes” and sunk deeper into the faux leather.

Oh well. The picture and sound were excellent and I enjoyed the film a lot. It’s a little compromised by having to lead into its sequel but overall it did a decent job of recreating and updating the frantic energy of the original, and the decision to shoot it with iPhones felt like an appropriate evolution from the Canon XL1.

Conversely I have no information either way about whether F1 is any good. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I like the unexpected direction that Dogs of War is going in, and I find it hard to guess what’s coming next, so that’s encouraging.

I am, inexplicably, rewatching Shōgun and enjoying it much more the second time. I’m less distracted by trying to remember who everyone is, which is letting me appreciate the incredible visual effects and some of the subtleties of the performances, dialogue and costumes. I wish I was clever enough to properly enjoy things the first time but I suppose just watching them again is a decent coping strategy.

HYPERLOCAL ROAD CHAT: they’re finally — finally! — removing parts of the social distancing pavement extensions on Bishopsgate, making it marginally less dangerous to squeeze north past a bus at the Primrose Street lights. I don’t know why this pointless hazard has stayed there for so long but it’s a huge relief that something’s being done at last.

(Confusingly the pavement is also being widened southbound at the junction with Wormwood Street. Maybe that’s unrelated traffic calming.)

I am so fucking tired of people trying to talk to me about LLMs. If you ever have the opportunity not to, please take it.

No, for £70 I’m not playing Death Stranding 2. Fool me once.