Weeknotes 92

I’ve had lots of fun implementing, and no fun writing, my RubyConf talk. I tried hard but failed as predicted to get a video recorded by the end of Friday, so now it’ll be hanging over my week off, which isn’t ideal.

Given that it’s too late to avoid pain entirely, I think my best option is to sacrifice a day next week to getting it done so that I can at least relax afterwards. I resent it eating into my holiday but I can’t see another way out of this hole I’ve dug myself into.

I’ve long since forgotten why I’m putting myself through this.

Simon Anthony has moved on to streaming Baba Is You and it’s entertaining despite being deeply frustrating in much the same way as The Witness was. He doesn’t seem interested in engaging with the game’s escalating series of ideas or its invitation to think creatively about the structure of each new situation, but on the occasions where he does pay full attention to what’s happening in a puzzle it’s impressive how quickly he can solve it.

It inspired me & Nat to play a few levels ourselves this weekend, picking up about halfway through the game where we’d left off a few years ago. It’s still infuriatingly difficult, and it still feels great when you finally make a breakthrough after being stuck for ages. Its best trick by far is misdirection: there’s something really satisfying about spending half an hour trying to work out how to unlock a door and then realising that nothing was stopping you from walking through it in the first place.

We’re two episodes into Squid Game and it’s pretty good. At this stage it’s hard to know what the actual tone is meant to be: episode one was funny, with some absurdly over-the-top violence played (I think?) for laughs, then episode two was comparatively dark and serious. I’m definitely curious to see where it’ll go next and how they’ll make the premise last for seven more episodes.

It’s unclear why we’re still watching Foundation, each hour-long episode of which depicts assorted events but somehow manages to have zero narrative momentum. It’s so grand and expensive but so ponderous. Will someone in this show please snap out of it and do something? Argh!

There have been several things to celebrate this week so my head’s a bit fuzzy. My body’s definitely lost some of its alcohol tolerance after 18 months of post-COVID living.

The talk-writing stress has taken it out of me. I hope I can get in a few days of proper relaxation before it’s time to go back to work.