Weeknotes 97

RubyConf was this week. My talk came and went and nothing bad happened. I got a few nice comments but ultimately I don’t think more than a handful of people paid it any attention.

With the benefit of hindsight, I wouldn’t do a prerecorded conference talk like this again. An in-person conference provides a venue and audience that aren’t otherwise available to individual speakers, but if I’m just making a video in my bedroom then I’d be better off recording and releasing it independently.

Anyway, now I don’t have to think about it any more, which is great. It wasn’t a good use of my time but I’m glad I got it out of my system and it’s gratifying to have it out in the world at last.

As a reward for publishing the talk I treated myself to an ostentatious new bread pan. I’ve only had a chance to bake with it once so far but I’m really happy with the results.

After nearly two years of trying, this feels like the first loaf I’ve made that could semi-convincingly be sold in a bakery. 🥲

What a terrible name for a pan. It reminds me of that tragedy.

I got another 16kg bag of flour delivered at the same time. This was my first flour delivery since I lost the same amount of weight earlier in the year, so it was strange to struggle up the stairs with a heavy bag for a few seconds and imagine hauling it around all the time.

We started watching Dexter: New Blood with some trepidation, given the dire conclusion to the dire closing seasons of its original run, but it’s actually pretty good! It’s not perfect but the first episode was surprisingly watchable and brought some nostalgic comfort. Mainly I just really like Jennifer Carpenter so I’m happy to see her again.

The epic yawnfest of Foundation has been joined in our viewing rotation by the epic yawnfest of See season two. Both are so self-consciously bombastic but so uninteresting in their characters and plot. See at least gets a bit of fun from finding new ways to integrate the everyone-is-blind conceit into its worldbuilding. But remember TV shows with realistic-seeming people who say & do normal, relatable things that make sense?

Like Sex Education! We’re only one episode into season three but it’s really fun and watchable so far. It has snappy writing, likeable characters, and every single shot just looks beautiful. What a joy.

We saw Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on Friday when it showed up on Disney+. I had no particular expectations because I didn’t know anything about the character, so I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be so fun and pacy. I usually dread the action scenes in Marvel films but these were kinetic and legible in a way that made them easy to enjoy. Also I could watch Awkwafina do her shtick all day.

I feel sort of exhausted and scattered and listless for no obvious reason. It’s possible that working on and/or stressing about the talk for so long burned out part of my brain. This week has been all over the place so I’m going to get back into a more normal routine next week and try my best to focus again.