In this weeks weeknotes I mentioned how Game of Thrones disappeared from cultural relevance. Now I’m noticing Rick and Morty followed a similar path.

During its early seasons, it dominated geek culture and the internet. Today? Almost nothing.

For me, the decline began with the McDonalds Szechuan sauce incident. The public suddenly saw the toxic side of the fanbase. Then came allegations of abuse and general creepiness against co-creator Justin Roiland. The magic somehow evaporated.

The quality seems to have dipped too. I’m watching season six – it’s acceptable but repetitive. Not as good as its original self.

Unlike Game of Thrones, which I still love despite its cultural abandonment, I’ve let Rick and Morty go. Once among my favorite shows, now I barely think about it, let alone watch it.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Hi all 👋 Hope you had a good week.

I’m still getting into the swing of writing these weeknotes, so I’ve missed the past two weeks. I’m realising that I shouldn’t wait until the end of the week to write it. I should just add to it each day.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been thinking, learning and writing these part three weeks.

🏡 Life Update

My biggest highlight recently was getting to feed baby lambs at Herrings Green Activity Farm. Delightful. Aside from having some farm animals, it’s also a cracking owl sanctuary. My main takeaway is that eagles are scary and owls are spooky.

Like everyone else on the internet I’ve been using OpenAI’s new 4o Image Generation to convert photos into Studio Ghibli images.

This new image generator is a big, big leap forward. I am very scared of image/video AI.

There’s plenty of inventions that create a clear before and after in the history of the world. AI is one. It’s a printing press moment.

House purchase update. We didn’t get the cottage I fell in love with. Devastating :( Though oddly, I was less sad than I expected. Once I knew it was not possible I just accepted it. One day I will own a cottage. But by the looks of it, it won’t be this decade.

Me and my girlfriend stayed in a spa hotel. It’s an obvious thing to say, but it was relaxing. I’ve never done a spa weekend before, so wasn’t sure what to expect. But it was lovely. I like anywhere that has a sauna. On my final day I had two baths and spent time in the pool, jacuzzi, and sauna.

Went to see the Basement Yard podcast live. It was more for my girlfriend than me, but I had fun. Though quite a few members of the crowd were awful and shouted throughout.

But the for me, the highlight was Peter Serafinowicz sitting right behind me. Within seconds of hearing him talk I suspected it was him – he has a wonderful, velvety voice. The only thing that threw me off was his Liverpool accent. I didn’t realise he was from there, and I guess he tends to not use his original accent in most projects. He seemed like a very pleasant guy from what I could overhear.

🧠 Things I Learnt

The Karaites are an ancient Jewish religious sect “beyond the acceptable fringes of mainstream rabbinic Judaism, recognising only the Torah as Devine law.” They survived the holocaust by arguing they were not really Jewish at all.

💭 Short Thoughts and Notes

I really need to eat more tuna and cucumber sandwiches. I kind of feel that a sandwich for lunch is a defeat. The depressing, boring choice. But tuna and cucumber is divine. It’s Mother’s Day today and me and my sister are taking Mum to the Savoy Hotel for afternoon tea. I’m hoping those sandwiches won’t feel like defeat.

🎬 Films

The Book of Eli

I remember this being a very solid dystopian disaster film, with great action scenes and a stylish look.

Watching it again 15 years on, it’s actually rather crap.

Gary Oldman and Denzel Washington do their thing. But this is quite dull and uninspired. And I didn’t realise how bad Mila Kunis is in it.

I do still like the ending though. 38% (Stream it)

Taxi (2004)

This is objectively bad. But I have a soft spot for it. It’s fun, harmless and keeps you perfectly entertained for 90 minutes. 60% (Stream it)

📺 TV

Game of Thrones

One of my top five TV shows of all time, this is my fifth or sixth rewatch. The main difference this time around is that I was sober. When the show was being aired one of the highlights of my week was getting drunk and watching the latest episode. I have fond memories of it. And when the show finished it entered the pantheon of films/TV that I enjoyed watching drunk. But I don’t drink much these days, so this was a sober experience. But no less of a great one.

Sure, the last season is pretty naff (though better than I remembered). But Game of Thrones continues to be tremendous TV, with many exceptional characters and jaw dropping moments.

The world hasn’t forgotten or forgiven the awful ending and it feels like the show has almost disappeared from the cultural map. It just kind of forgot that it was one of the most dominant forces in TV for many years. Each and every episode was an event, with people going to bars to watch episodes as a group (link contains major spoilers). But I haven’t forgotten. It’s still exceptional. If you’ve never seen it before or haven’t rewatched for a long time, I encourage you to give it a go. (Stream it)

A Thousand Blows

A show about crime and bareknuckle boxing set in 1880s London should be right up my street. But this felt a bit Disneyified and I just couldn’t get into it. The world or characters just didn’t feel real or interesting. (Stream it)

🎵 Music

Worked my way through the first few albums of Mac DeMarco, for the first time. A tad disappointed. It seems like his best songs were the couple that I was already aware of and had listened to.

Hi all 👋 Hope you had a good week. My week was pretty quiet (as the short weeknotes will reflect).

🏡 Life Update

The theme of this week continues to be me and my girlfriend looking to buy our first home. We’re having to pull out of the one we’ve put an offer accepted for

All my life I’ve wanted to life in a cottage, so the chance to fulfill that dream is too good to miss. It is gorgeous and has everything you want from a cottage: wooden beams, cubby holes, slightly quirky (but large) layout, and a log burner We’ve put in an offer today. Let’s hope they accept.

Oh also, my Honda Civic turned 20 years old this week.

💭 Short Thoughts and Notes

Because I’m going to be a home owner at some point in the next few months I’ve gotten serious about budgeting again.

Many years ago I used YNAB, which I still like. But it’s $15 a month. So I’ve looked elsewhere. Actual is a good one. But I decided to go really geeky and am using hledger. Will I find it too tiresome and ‘manual’? Eventually. But right now it’s mostly fun.

Has a main character on a TV show ever actually died by drowning? It’s always just a cliffhanger.

I use Arq to backup files on my MacBook Pro. But it can feel a bit ‘heavy’ and slow at times. So I looked for other options for my Mac mini and I went with restic.

It uses the CLI – unlike Arq with its GUI.

But to be honest, the GUI of Arq doesn’t do the main thing I want anyway: quickly preview different versions of a file to work out which is the one that I want to restore.

I’m impressed by restic thus far. It’s fast, and uses a tiny amount of CPU.

I’m using it to backup my most important files to AWS S3 – with backups being sent to S3 Glacier after a month, so save money.

And my slightly less important media files are backed up to Scaleway Glacier, which only costs £1.66 per TB a month.

And you know what they say, your backups aren’t truly backups until you’ve confirmed you can actually restore data from them.

Well I had to this morning. I made a mistake when doing a git rebase and lost some files. So I ran the restic command and restored the data in seconds. I’m impressed.

Food labelling around how the animals were treated before they were murdered really needs to be changed.

Maybe I’m just thick, but it’s all so vague and I’m not sure exactly what they mean. “Organic” and “Higher Welfare” are meaningless to me. At least “Free to Roam” is somewhat descriptive.

But I think most of the UK public is in a similar boat to me.

I went to a pub and at one point had three dogs in my eyeline. That should be a legal requirement for all pubs.

Something I like about 4K BluRays is that old films are being ‘rereleased’ on them.

It’s a great way to discover films you might not have seen before.

In May, a film I very much have seen before arrives on BluRay: A Knight’s Tale. It’s a film I love.

Looking forward to watching it on 4K.

🔗 Short Links

• “21 Things I Wish I Knew in My Twenties”

🍽️ Food

Usually when I buy a whole chicken I use it for a roast dinner. But this week we mixed it up a used it to make a Nandosesque chicken dish with chips and coleslaw. It was a success. I love a roast, so it was a bit of a risk potentially ‘wasting’ that chicken making something else.

It was a extra-large chicken. So the next day we used the leftovers to make chicken wraps, which were delightful.

🎵 Music

I listened to a bit of Jackson Browne. His music is gorgeous. His songs have a melancholic beauty that hits the same part of my brain as Van Morrison. He’s also a rare 1960/70’s musician in that had some very good albums outside of those two decades. With songs like Hold Out, Call It a Loan, On The Day, In the Shape of a Heart, Sky Blue and Black.

I saw someone rate Low as David Bowie’s best album. Not having heard it for a while, I gave it a listen. I don’t know what the best Bowie album is. But it’s Low.

Hi all 👋 Hope you had a good week. Here’s what I’ve been thinking, learning and writing.

🧠 Things I Learnt

I read mostly about Robert Cotton in The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club this week.

He was a Member of Parliament, but he’s mostly remembered for his high-quality manuscript

I thought it interesting how genealogy and ancestry determined personal status in Tudor and Stuart England.

So much so, that when the Scottish James I became King of England, many courtiers and scholars adjusted their family narratives to fit James’s Scottish interests.

Cotton was no different. He emphasised and possibly reinterpreted parts of his lineage to show stronger Scottish ancestry – ignoring certain ancestors and highlighting others.

He even inserted “Bruce” as his middle name, associating himself with Robert the Bruce.

💭 Short Thoughts and Notes

• The Qatar ExxonMobil Open: a tennis tournament brought to you by fossil fuels and sportswashing.
• Tom Hardy hasn’t been in a good film for years. When I saw him pop up in a trailer I used to be like “can’t wait to check this out”. Now when I see him I think “this is going to be terrible”.
• Nothing comes close to the anger of biting your tongue. Not yanking on your headphone wire. Not catching your pocket on a door handle. NOTHING.
• Inspired and enlightened by this article, I’ve put Mastodon ‘comments’ onto this blog. Feel free to add your thoughts at the bottom of the page 👇
• Until now I’ve never really thought it about how depressing cafes in museums, art galleries and other such buildings are. In my mind these cafes should be lovely. Cosy, warming and comfortable. A place to discuss the art just seen. Instead they’re nearly always like school cafeterias. The food trays and chairs are made out of the same plain, thin wood. The tables are arranged to get the largest number of people inside. And the lighting is bright and white. And there’s always a queue to order. I think there’s a reason why I avoid them like the plague.
• One day you start blogging and before you know it your blog is ancient. I’m Left Handed, my blog largely about technology is now 15 years old.

🔗 Short Links

• “Broken Legs and Ankles Heal Better If You Walk on Them within Weeks” – Scientific American
• “Advice for a friend who wants to start a blog” – Henrik Karlsson

🍽️ Food

I was amazed to see these strange white strawberries in M&S. Apparently they have a “pineapple aroma and a hint of vanilla.” So I bit into it with anticipation (it’s not every day you try a new fruit). And… it tasted just like a normal strawberry. Disappointing.

They might be called something different where you are, like pineberry. But either way, don’t buy them. They’re not worth the extra money.

🎵 Music

New song of the week is Be Not So Fearful by Bill Fay (via Ran Prieur). I Hear You Calling and The Healing Day is also good.

👨‍💻 Things I Wrote

Dr Pepper

I have an extremely strong memory of the first time I tried Dr Pepper.

Dawn broke at the scout campsite.

With the smell of smoke still softly rising from last nights fires, me and my best friend Sam took a walk.

The ground was endlessly dew-covered and we were the only humans awake.

Amid the dank trees there was a beacon glowing. A vending machine.

I chose a curiously named drink I’d heard of but never tasted: Dr Pepper.

Looking out over the campsite, I took a sip. It was magic. It tasted unlike anything I’d ever had.

And standing there with Sam, watching mist hover above the grass and curl around the trees, the moment was perfect.

It was a ‘high’ I’ve tried to chase ever since. But every time I camped or had a Dr Pepper it was so… ordinary. It wasn’t the same as that day when I was a boy.

Until yesterday.

I tried the new Dr Pepper ‘Cherry Crush’.

And when I took a sip I was transported back to that morning. This was it. This was what I’d tasted.

I don’t even know if I actually had the cherry flavoured one that fateful morning. But either way, the cherry one of 2025 tastes the same as that Dr Pepper did all those years ago. And I’m going to buy a million of them.

It’s usually foolish trying to chase nostalgia. But just sometimes, it pays off.

You Don’t Need More Content – You Need Better Attention

Reading Henrik Karlsson° got me thinking about the importance of high quality ‘inputs’.

Every day, we wade through dozens of blog posts, when our reading list is full. We browse book reviews, despite having shelves of unread greatness. We scan Rotten Tomatoes, while our watchlist already contains more masterpieces than we could watch in years.

Consuming excellence isn’t a search problem. It’s a focus problem. I know which blogs have a low ‘hit’ rate. I know early on when a book isn’t good. I know I rarely gain anything from visiting a news site.

So don’t be sentimental. Be ruthless. And be aware of how short your day/week/year/life is. How many books will you read in a lifetime? Less than you think. Stop reading that average book your friend recommended and loved. Stop following that blog that isn’t interesting, just because they’re a sweet person. Abandon that dull TV show at episode three, not episode ten.

But cutting out the mediocre isn’t enough. You not only have to consume great content, you have to engage it. Wrestle with the ideas. Connect them to your experience. Talk and write about them. Only then can they be digested and become part of your thinking.

I catch myself failing at this constantly. Loosely reading ten mediocre but easy articles instead of engaging with the exceptional one. Despite knowing that one hour deeply processing a great article yields more value than ten hours of shallow reading.

So let’s not forget: excellence isn’t hidden. The challenge isn’t finding it – it’s choosing to engage with it.

Process more, consume less.

The Wistfulness of Your 30s

Wistfulness [noun]: a feeling of sadness because you are thinking about something that is impossible or in the past.

@easemyvibes on Threads:

No one prepares you for the grief you feel in your 30s. Time suddenly feels like it sped up — you’re grieving the life you thought you’d have by now, you’re seeing your parents get older, you and your loved ones are all experiencing loss in some capacity, you’re outgrowing relationships, and you’re constantly thinking of your own mortality; wanting to live life to the fullest, but “the fullest” costs money so you’re stuck working to afford a life you have no time to live.

As a 33-year-old, I fully understand where she’s coming from.

A general melancholy often surrounds me. My life isn’t bad at all, objectively speaking. But I find myself caught between a nostalgic past and a adulthood that feels different from what I imagined.

Looking at childhood photos makes me sad. I’ve fallen into watching endless nostalgia videos on social media showcasing the toys, TV shows, and life of my childhood. It creates an ache in my gut, but I can’t resist. It’s like I’m living vicariously through my past self.

It feels like just a few years ago I turned 22. Now I’m 33.

Despite recognising this fleeting nature of time, I don’t make the effort to live more. I don’t take up new hobbies, travel, or focus on my health. Instead, I continue in the same old patterns. And though I know I’ll regret this when I turn 50 (which will come around sooner than I think), I can’t seem to break the cycle.

I’ve read that many people report their 30s as their happiest decade. I hope that proves true. Despite the melancholic tone of this post, I don’t consider myself badly off. I’m not chronically depressed, financially struggling, or in poor health.

But I just feel off. The sun doesn’t shine as brightly as it once did. Few things truly excite me anymore. Life simply feels plain. I’ve been waiting for years for it to feel like it used to. But it hasn’t. And I don’t think it will.

Heroism in the Age of Dishwashers

I saw a TikTok where a wife said that when her husband claimed he’d do anything for her, he meant fighting off bears and going into battle. Not putting the washing away.

There’s a lesson about life and love in that quip. When we’re young, we imagine life’s defining moments as grand and cinematic – standing firm against formidable foes and making dramatic declarations of love. What we don’t realise is that most of life’s biggest battles will be boring and monotonous. Often that’s precisely why they’re challenging.

It’s not about dramatic gestures or heroic moments. It’s about turning up day-in, day-out, to do something mundane that you don’t particularly enjoy. Loading the dishwasher for the thousandth time. Having the same conversation with your partner about household chores. Plodding through another week at work.

Sometimes the challenge isn’t about fighting at all, but about resisting the urge to fight. It’s holding your tongue when you could lash out. It’s choosing the difficult conversation over the slammed door.

It’s not whether you’d leap in front of a bus to save your loved one . It’s whether you’ll stand in the rain for ages outside the train station because your girlfriend was delayed due to chatting – without making them feel guilty about it. The real test of love is whether you’ll do that monotonous job without being asked and without expecting a pat on the back.

Glory isn’t on the imagined battlefields, but in the quiet dignity of showing up for the small things, again and again and again.

20 years of playing Age of Empires II (elliot.my)

I’ve been playing a lot of Age of Empires II over the past few weeks.

First released in 1999, I was first introduced to it by watching my Uncle play it probably some time in 2003. And I’ve been playing it on and off ever since. Over 20 years!

As a game it has had remarkable staying power. And it’s a prime example of the benefit of single player games

I saw a TikTok where a wife said that when her husband claimed he’d do anything for her, he meant fighting off bears and going into battle. Not putting the washing away.

There’s a lesson about life and love in that quip. When we’re young, we imagine life’s defining moments as grand and cinematic – standing firm against formidable foes and making dramatic declarations of love. What we don’t realise is that most of life’s biggest battles will be boring and monotonous. Often that’s precisely why they’re challenging.

It’s not about dramatic gestures or heroic moments. It’s about turning up day-in, day-out, to do something mundane that you don’t particularly enjoy. Loading the dishwasher for the thousandth time. Having the same conversation with your partner about household chores. Plodding through another week at work.

Sometimes the challenge isn’t about fighting at all, but about resisting the urge to fight. It’s holding your tongue when you could lash out. It’s choosing the difficult conversation over the slammed door.

It’s not whether you’d leap in front of a bus to save your loved one . It’s whether you’ll stand in the rain for ages outside the train station because your girlfriend was delayed due to chatting – without making them feel guilty about it. The real test of love is whether you’ll do that monotonous job without being asked and without expecting a pat on the back.

Glory isn’t on the imagined battlefields, but in the quiet dignity of showing up for the small things, again and again and again.

Wistfulness [noun]: a feeling of sadness because you are thinking about something that is impossible or in the past.

@easemyvibes on Threads:

No one prepares you for the grief you feel in your 30s. Time suddenly feels like it sped up — you’re grieving the life you thought you’d have by now, you’re seeing your parents get older, you and your loved ones are all experiencing loss in some capacity, you’re outgrowing relationships, and you’re constantly thinking of your own mortality; wanting to live life to the fullest, but “the fullest” costs money so you’re stuck working to afford a life you have no time to live.

As a 33-year-old, I fully understand where she’s coming from.

A general melancholy often surrounds me. My life isn’t bad at all, objectively speaking. But I find myself caught between a nostalgic past and a adulthood that feels different from what I imagined.

Looking at childhood photos makes me sad. I’ve fallen into watching endless nostalgia videos on social media showcasing the toys, TV shows, and life of my childhood. It creates an ache in my gut, but I can’t resist. It’s like I’m living vicariously through my past self.

It feels like just a few years ago I turned 22. Now I’m 33.

Despite recognising this fleeting nature of time, I don’t make the effort to live more. I don’t take up new hobbies, travel, or focus on my health. Instead, I continue in the same old patterns. And though I know I’ll regret this when I turn 50 (which will come around sooner than I think), I can’t seem to break the cycle.

I’ve read that many people report their 30s as their happiest decade. I hope that proves true. Despite the melancholic tone of this post, I don’t consider myself badly off. I’m not chronically depressed, financially struggling, or in poor health.

But I just feel off. The sun doesn’t shine as brightly as it once did. Few things truly excite me anymore. Life simply feels plain. I’ve been waiting for years for it to feel like it used to. But it hasn’t. And I don’t think it will.

Reading Henrik Karlsson° got me thinking about the importance of high quality ‘inputs’.

Every day, we wade through dozens of blog posts, when our reading list is full. We browse book reviews, despite having shelves of unread greatness. We scan Rotten Tomatoes, while our watchlist already contains more masterpieces than we could watch in years.

Consuming excellence isn’t a search problem. It’s a focus problem. I know which blogs have a low ‘hit’ rate. I know early on when a book isn’t good. I know I rarely gain anything from visiting a news site.

So don’t be sentimental. Be ruthless. And be aware of how short your day/week/year/life is. How many books will you read in a lifetime? Less than you think. Stop reading that average book your friend recommended and loved. Stop following that blog that isn’t interesting, just because they’re a sweet person. Abandon that dull TV show at episode three, not episode ten.

But cutting out the mediocre isn’t enough. You not only have to consume great content, you have to engage it. Wrestle with the ideas. Connect them to your experience. Talk and write about them. Only then can they be digested and become part of your thinking.

I catch myself failing at this constantly. Loosely reading ten mediocre but easy articles instead of engaging with the exceptional one. Despite knowing that one hour deeply processing a great article yields more value than ten hours of shallow reading.

So let’s not forget: excellence isn’t hidden. The challenge isn’t finding it – it’s choosing to engage with it.

Process more, consume less.

I have an extremely strong memory of the first time I tried Dr Pepper.

Dawn broke at the scout campsite.

With the smell of smoke still softly rising from last nights fires, me and my best friend Sam took a walk.

The ground was endlessly dew-covered and we were the only humans awake.

Amid the dank trees there was a beacon glowing. A vending machine.

I chose a curiously named drink I’d heard of but never tasted: Dr Pepper.

Looking out over the campsite, I took a sip. It was magic. It tasted unlike anything I’d ever had.

And standing there with Sam, watching mist hover above the grass and curl around the trees, the moment was perfect.

It was a ‘high’ I’ve tried to chase ever since. But every time I camped or had a Dr Pepper it was so… ordinary. It wasn’t the same as that day when I was a boy.

Until yesterday.

I tried the new Dr Pepper ‘Cherry Crush’.

And when I took a sip I was transported back to that morning. This was it. This was what I’d tasted.

I don’t even know if I actually had the cherry flavoured one that fateful morning. But either way, the cherry one of 2025 tastes the same as that Dr Pepper did all those years ago. And I’m going to buy a million of them.

It’s usually foolish trying to chase nostalgia. But just sometimes, it pays off.

Hi all 👋 Hope you had a good week. Here’s what I’ve been thinking, learning, writing and photographing.

🏡 Life Update

The theme of the week is that me and my girlfriend have had an offer on a house accepted. But she’s now seen another one that she likes more. I prefer the first one, she prefers the second. So we need to work out what we’re going to do. My plan: let the gods decide. If we put an offer on house two and it’s accepted, then we’ll go for it.

💭 Short Thoughts and Notes

• If a video starts with a dude wearing a backwards baseball cap, nothing interesting or good is about to happen. I immediately scroll.
• Weird hearing someone say “WSJ” out loud instead of “Wall Street Journal” – it takes longer to say! Like that Alan Partridge bit about “VW” vs “Volkswagen”.
• I wish I had the strength to get up and walk away when presented with a QR menu in a restaurant.
• Talking of QR codes. I’m amazed by how ubiquitous they are now. I remember when they first appeared. They were a bit of a flop. You’d rarely see them. And non-techies didn’t know what they were or how to interact with them. But now they’re on anything and everything, and even my Dad knows how to scan them.

🧠 Things I Learnt

I lost the momentum of my reading habit when I was sick a few weeks back. And I’m yet to properly pick it up again. So I haven’t learnt too much this week.

But I did learn a new word: pogonophile – a person who likes beards.

👨‍💻 Things I Wrote

Hunter S. Thompson died 20 years ago (blot.blog)

Raising a glass of Wild Turkey to Hunter S. Thompson, who died 20 years ago today. The father of Gonzo journalism, he was a rebel, trailblazer, and master of chaos. (1937-2005) 🦇

If you’re unfamiliar with this work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hell’s Angels are good places to start.

And I have a particular soft spot for his novel The Rum Diary – it’s a great holiday read.

There’s also a brilliant documentary.

For a shorter example of his wit and insight you should read his ESPN column written on September 12, 2001 – the day after 9/11:

The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now – with somebody – and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.

It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy.

[…] We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once.

‘James Bond to be made by Amazon as British creators step back’ (blot.blog)

The Times:

Creative control of the James Bond film franchise is to become an all-American affair after long-time rights holders Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson announced they were stepping down and handing the reins to Amazon MGM Studios.

I think this is bad news, despite them remaining ‘co-owners’ of the franchise.

It always seemed that ‘Bond’ as a franchise and all it represents was largely held together by the dedication of Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson – they were more than mere rights holders. They understood Bond, and I’m sure stopped many attempts to ‘modernise’ it.

I’m unsure how Amazonian MGM is. But after the dull Rings of Power, I don’t trust Amazon Studios to make the next Bond instalment(s) any good. I hope I’m wrong.

[Broccoli] was said to be relaxed about casting a person of colour or a gay actor, but less comfortable with a female or non-British Bond.

I wouldn’t say there’s loads of pressure for the next Bond to be non-white, American, gay or a woman

I’m not silly enough to think that just because Amazon makes the punch-y Reacher and geopolitically charged Jack Ryan that their Bond will be an awful mix of the two – I’m sure they’re not that clueless. But whatever their Bond’s ‘feel’ is, I expect it to be mediocre.

Though you never know, maybe they’ll improve it.

“U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts” (elliot.my)

Washington Post:

Security officials in the United Kingdom have demanded that Apple create a back door allowing them to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud…

The British government’s undisclosed order, issued last month, requires blanket capability to view fully encrypted material, not merely assistance in cracking a specific account, and has no known precedent in major democracies.

One of the things I hate most about Britain and its governments

The witching hours (elliot.my)

It’s currently 01:32 and I was due to be asleep quite a few hours ago.

It’s fine. Once or twice a week I struggle to sleep. It’s a pain – especially when I’m working in-office the next day. But I’m used to it.

On these sleepless evenings I worry about the lack of sleep I’m going to get. But another thing I think about is how much I like the nighttime.

I don’t do fun stuff like gaming whilst up late, like I did in my teenage years. I don’t do much at all really – just read, watch, and fiddle with my phone. That’s not why I like it.

I like it because the hours between 22:00–03:00 are when my brain and body work their best – I’m creative and energetic. And it makes me miss those years when I had a sleep pattern of 04:00–12:00.

Waking up early

🎬 Films

Shrek 2 (2004)

When I saw a band dedicated to music from the Shrek films (The Ogretones (I even bought the t-shirt) they asked the crowd which was their favourite one. To my surprise Shrek 2 got by far the most cheers.

I’ve always thought of Shrek as the superior film, with the second one being decent and fun, but not quite in the same league.

So on this rewatching I tried to watch it through the lens of being better.

I still think #1 is the better film, technically. But #2 is just so much bloody fun. There’s so much humour, joy, and energy.

75%

Find out where to stream it.

🎵 Music

Not much music this week. But me and my girlfriend have been repeatedly listening to "Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)" by Gotye.

🍽️ Food

IKEA

I ate at IKEA because my girlfriend had never eaten there before. It took a couple of visits to convince her to try it (it didn’t look appetising to her at all).

Let’s be honest, the food isn’t special. It’s just exceptionally cheap. Except it’s not so cheap anymore. We paid £20.40 for 2 x meals, 2 x desserts and 2 x drinks. Cheaper than a restaurant that’s for sure. But it’s school cafeteria food at the end of the day. Still, I enjoyed the novelty factor.

Maryland Cookies

Maryland Cookies have been around for many years, and in the UK they’re the ‘default’ mass-produced cookie.

I remember having them a few years ago and being shocked by their small size and lack of chocolate chips.

But they’re actually very good now. They’re still small, but they always have plenty of chocolate chips and taste perfectly pleasant considering you can get a pack for 90p.

Squashies Drumchick

I first ate these after eating some super sour sweats, and they tasted like nothing.

So when I came back a few days later to finish the pack I was shocked when I loved them. Their flavour is mild, but pleasant and addictive. And the little bird sweets are very cute.

Jelly Tots Tangy

Cook a cat, these are delicious. The tanginess and bitterness arrives the moment they hit your tongue. They do taste a bit artificial. But aside from that, these are tremendous.

🤳 Photos

These cleaning gloves at IKEA look like they want to check my prostate.

The Times:

Creative control of the James Bond film franchise is to become an all-American affair after long-time rights holders Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson announced they were stepping down and handing the reins to Amazon MGM Studios.

I think this is bad news, despite them remaining ‘co-owners’ of the franchise.

It always seemed that ‘Bond’ as a franchise and all it represents was largely held together by the dedication of Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson – they were more than mere rights holders. They understood Bond, and I’m sure stopped many attempts to ‘modernise’ it.

I’m unsure how Amazonian MGM is. But after the dull Rings of Power, I don’t trust Amazon Studios to make the next Bond instalment(s) any good. I hope I’m wrong.

[Broccoli] was said to be relaxed about casting a person of colour or a gay actor, but less comfortable with a female or non-British Bond.

I wouldn’t say there’s loads of pressure for the next Bond to be non-white, American, gay or a woman

I’m not silly enough to think that just because Amazon makes the punch-y Reacher and geopolitically charged Jack Ryan that their Bond will be an awful mix of the two – I’m sure they’re not that clueless. But whatever their Bond’s ‘feel’ is, I expect it to be mediocre.

Though you never know, maybe they’ll improve it.