Weeknotes 48

I didn’t think of something funny.

I’ve decided not to get a Christmas tree. I understand why a lot of people are plunging headfirst into getting festive after such a shitty year but what I really need is a quiet and unstressful time, which for me means taking a holiday from the chore of obtaining, erecting and decorating a massive plant. Sometimes that can be a fun diversion but I’m not feeling it this year and I don’t want to stand close enough to another person to buy a tree from them.

To clarify: I don’t hate joy.

In a disheartening yet inevitable sign of the times I’ve cancelled my TV licence and started paying for YouTube Premium instead. I like the BBC in principle but the reality is that they make almost nothing that I want to watch, so my licence fee has been essentially a donation for the last few years.

Conversely I spend many hours every week watching informative, educational and entertaining videos on YouTube so it feels like a better use of (slightly less) money to remove the increasingly unbearable ads from them. YouTube without ads is so good that I don’t resent the cost for a second.

I do worry that Google will spend this extra money on being racist but the BBC was almost certainly going to spend it on being racist anyway so that’s kind of a wash ethically speaking.

Case in point: I’ve been enjoying Sohla El-Waylly’s Stump Sohla videos for the last couple of months, and now Claire Saffitz has started a new Dessert Person channel. I find them both extremely watchable so I’m relieved they’ve found a way to keep making a living from this after Bon Appétit exploded.

Death Stranding apparently came out a year ago, although it feels much more recent than that. It’s a good game overall and I have happy memories of playing it during my final weeks of working at FutureLearn.

Nat’s been playing a lot of Red Dead Redemption 2 on the PS5. This is a game which I completely failed to get into when it was first released, but it’s fun to sit back and watch someone else gallop around its beautiful open world. I find it surprisingly relaxing considering how much murder is involved.

Community: Digital Estate Planning. I like the experimental formats this season but the show feels like it’s losing its magic.