→ A new tradition began this past weekend: Fat Halloween. Originating from a misheard question (you had to be there), Fat Halloween is an evening of pizza (Yardsale), ice cream (Ben & Jerry’s, preferably Netflix & Chill’d) and horror films. This year it was Barbarian and 1997’s The Relic.
→ I woke up at around 3:30am on Tuesday morning. The dog has been pretty restless this past week thanks to the incessant fireworks, and that’s made me restless too. Normally when this happens I lie there for hours, trying to will sleep upon myself, getting increasingly angry and frustrated with myself and my stupid brain. On Tuesday though I just got up, made a cup of tea and worked for three hours. I was still pretty tired for the rest of the day, but what really does for me is the anger. Take that away and it’s manageable. Lesson learned.
→ I bought this Day of the Triffids poster this week. I am justifying it as 100% of the profits go to UNICEF in support of Ukraine (isn’t it gorgeous though?). But, as this poster also arrived this week, I might have to stop buying posters now. It’s that or get divorced.
→ I have spent a lot of time writing about Web3 and blockchain technology recently. I can see why people are so fascinated by this stuff, but my brain is pretty much mush by this point.
→ The company my wife works for has an office in Philadelphia, which means she travels out there semi-regularly. As a result, I have developed a fondness for the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team. This year, the Phillies made it all the way to the World Series. On Wednesday morning the Phillies were 2-1 up in the Series.
… By Saturday this excitement had transformed into nervous trepidation…
By Sunday I was miserable :(
→ The good news is… We got Glastonbury tickets! Please let Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen headline. And also maybe Pulp.
→ I am in awe of the new series of Documentary Now! The previous three seasons have been really good, but series four is exceptional. The “Two Hairdressers in Bagglyport”and “How They Threw Rocks” episodes in particular have been wonderfully weird and beautifully put together. I don’t know how they get away with it to be honest. But I’m very glad they do.
→ Some interesting things I’ve read this week:
This in the Verge by Nilay Patel is the most concise and pithy description of the challenge facing Elon Musk, I.e. it’s a people/political problem, not a software/tech problem.
What Moneyball-for-Everything Has Done to American Culture In the Atlantic is about the algorithimification of culture. It’s a little doom-mongerY, but makes some good points.
→ Listening to: