Weeknotes (1742/4175)

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 woman¹ – mostly it just seems to be the media writing about it because they know it stirs the pot. But I trusted Broccoli and co. to not cave into any pressure if it wasn’t right for Bond. Whereas Amazon MGM might want to mix things up a bit too much with a strange choice for Bond or by changing the feel of the films.

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.² I loved the Daniel Craig films and he’s my favourite Bond. But I would like a bit more fun and suavity injected back into it. Maybe Prime will deliver.

“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 governments³ is its weird anti-privacy obsession.

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.⁴

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 early⁵ doesn’t bother me too much. I’ve even learnt to enjoy it.⁶ But on those days when I stay up late I get a glimpse of those midnight, witching hours that my internal clock is built for.

🎬 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.⁷

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.

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