Weeknotes 343

How can it already be August? Unrelatedly: how can it still be summer?

Another sweltering week. It’s such a relief to have an air-conditioned office building to work from.

Oh, except the building was unexpectedly closed all week so I had to work from home. The heat made me sweaty and grumpy at an uncomfortably busy time.

I got some respite from my baking flat by going to the dentist and hygienist — both appointments conveniently located a stone’s throw from the office I wasn’t working in — for the first time since 2023. I felt embarrassed about how much time had passed but fortunately everything was fine and I don’t have to go back for another three years year.

As always, I was struck by the asymmetry of normality in those situations. It’s (shamefully) rare for someone to be poking around in my mouth, but for a dentist I’m just one of the thousands of unremarkable gobs they’ll see this year. The disconnect feels weird so I try my best to imagine it’s a totally quotidian experience for me too.

I met Denis for coffee on Friday, which was fun and proved a fertile source of exclusive weeknotes spoilers.

This afternoon I popped to Daniel’s new gaff for a little multi-celebration party, including a very enjoyable vegan pizza.

That’s all my August social energy spent, then.

Three gyms. Despite the exercise, my weight is creeping back up as work becomes more stressful. Not much I can do about that.

I must be about a third of the way through Redemption Ark. Yeesh.

Star City had a great last episode — scientifically implausible but very dramatic, with lots of fun space stuff, which was a nice surprise. The main downside was the lack of narrative closure, so I’m hoping for a second season.

I’ve been rewatching a few episodes of House (not House, M.D.). It hasn’t aged that well; it’s fun but cartoonish in comparison to modern prestige TV. I remember finding it fresh and interesting when it aired but it seems a bit silly in the cold light of 2026.

I’ve started season three of House of the Dragon. I’m a couple of episodes in and definitely enjoying it more than the previous season, despite feeling that my grasp on the story and characters is much flimsier now. Fortunately it doesn‘t really matter who anyone is because it’s been quite fun to just watch the dragons and boats and all that, plus I find Emma D’Arcy’s performance really compelling and could quite happily watch them all day.

The latest episode of The Unmade Podcast has a particularly fun payoff, and I’d recommend it to anyone regardless of whether they’ve listened before. The relevant section starts at 16:09.

What I should‘ve said about the Switch 2, rather than allowing myself to be distracted by the dismal setup experience, is that it’s a really lovely bit of hardware. The screen’s big, bright and clear, and the joycons feel great. The way they attach magnetically is delightful, and the “use it like a mouse” thing works surprisingly well and is handy for quickly entering text or other brief precision inputs. Now it just needs a game.