Weeknotes 80

I was on holiday all week so I don’t have much to report. Given the current situation we mostly stayed home and relaxed, which was brilliant, although a week isn’t really long enough to properly decompress.

(Would two weeks be long enough? A month? Am I in fact capable of decompressing or have I already bottomed out at my lowest possible density?)

We threw caution to the wind on Thursday and cycled to Homerton for lunch at The Spread Eagle and coffee at Dark Arts.

This was fun in itself but also a timely reminder of the actual upsides of city life: a chill ride through Hackney’s back streets and parks, great cheap vegan food in a pub garden, freshly-roasted coffee in the sunshine. Without an office to go to, or coworkers to hang out with, it can otherwise feel like there are only downsides when I’m working in a bedroom every day wishing I had a garden.

In case you were wondering, my neighbour’s dog is still barking.

It’s 31 degrees today. After weeks of resistance I finally cracked and plugged the air conditioner back in, making the situation better in the short term but slightly worse in the long term. Textbook human.

I watched Possessor for the first time and Blood Simple for the millionth. Possessor is pretty compelling and contains some interesting ideas and images as long as you look away during the handful of ridiculously violent bits (so I expect the cut version is better). I continue to find Blood Simple extremely comforting.

I’ve started playing through the PS5 version of The Last of Us Part II. I’m playing it on Hard+ which, as with the first game, creates a more interesting and thematically coherent experience than the default difficulty. I do occasionally get stuck because I’m out of practice with the combat, but quickly watching someone else beat the same section on YouTube unsticks me every time, so it’s challenging without being frustrating.

Unsurprisingly I’m enjoying it a lot so far. The higher frame rate makes everything look better and I’m more inclined to explore the environments now that I’m less concerned about what happens next. In general it’s easier to think critically and see how extremely well-designed it is the second time around.

I’m feeling a bit hopeless at the moment. Not sure why. It’ll probably pass! It’s possible that I need to get out more.

10.8kg down. 🤷‍♂️

Back to work tomorrow.