Media dump

Had a flu, was difficult to focus on work, so I consumed some media. Some time ago I watched the first episode of Rings of Power with some friends. My initial impression was it was boring, vapid, and an excuse for random people to make something for a rabid fan-base. Pointless, esp. considering the quality of the original lore and the Jackson trilogy. So rather than watching any more I've relied on EFAP to fill me in. How, seriously how, can series like this keep getting made? The money, the material, the talents, and the best they can cobble together is this? I'm fed up with GoT for various reasons, but the dragon show seems to have been ok. Oh right, one good thing came of this atrocity, I started reading the books again. Merry and Pippin just met Treebeard. So cute.

Finally played Mirror's Edge. Wow, what a curse-fest that was. Kinda pretty, the music was great. The plot, the Battlefield control feel, the fighting, the "BAM didn't see that coming, did you?! Reload!" sequences, made me so incredibly, amazingly angry. Maybe wasn't healthy, I was supposed to relax to recover from my flu. Fortunately it only took 5h to beat and I won't look back, but I'll put on the OST at some point, I'm sure.

Then I found two short puzzlers in my weird library: Puzzle Agent 2 and Gorogoa. Pretty sure I've written about Puzzle Agent 1 earlier, funny little mystery with simple self-contained puzzles scattered throughout. This installment continues and resolves the mystery. If you like some silly with a fun story, recommended. Gorogoa is something very different, reminds me of the experimental games in the glorious 90s. Interesting, felt a bit inconsistent sometimes as to the available actions. Imho the best parts were some of the poignant parts of the story, immediately sentimental somehow.

Will go to work tomorrow to pick something up, but probably won't work close to other people. I feel fine, but I'd rather not risk anybody's Christmas vacation, plus there's more diseases ravaging our society out there... I'm lucky to have such a remote-able job. Ait, time to read a little!

New book

Rather than turning a new page I've turned to a new book. It's so nice to not work in a cave every day, although I cannot say I like the office yet since I'm still looking for an apartment... I have the office key at least. Trudging through a stack of papers, I feel so rusty.

Been holding off on saying anything about a 1.5 year old hobby: piano playing! As usual I spent a lot of time digging, in this case probably for more than half a year, looking for an alternative to the violin. I really love the trumpet and like the idea of using my lungs to produce sound, but it's so loud and gross with all the spit. I had a full trumpet setup in the basket in an online shop and hovered the buy-button, but changed my mind. So, went for a white Roland FP30X + DP10 instead, great kit. It has a less "dreamy" sound than what's offered by other brands and I prefer it that way. I somehow felt all demos resembled real piano recordings more than the others that sounded a lot more repetitive and synthesised. Supposedly the action is more accurate too, but I know nothing. Each to their own! My solution is to not care about the gear any more and just play! Did a lot of exercises and very simple songs in the beginning (job + lots of hobbies...), but this summer I learnt all of Minuet and finally went from 20% to 95% of Gymnopedie 1, my first milestone. Next will probably be Arabesque (it's better than Clair de Lune *hides*). Violin-wise I need to open up Sevcik 1 and torture myself, looking forward to that.

Regarding other GAS (no, not the natural kind, topic too flammable (I am (not) sorry)), I suddenly got curious about noise-cancelling true wireless earbuds *sigh*. Fortunately I'm happy with my el cheapo Logi m185, I'll prolly keep that for a long time, although I should have tried the model with the silent buttons. No I shouldn't have, forget!

I quit Netflix, for now. Hardly used it since I left Germany. Will get a cheap mobile contract instead, seems ubiquitous in Sweden with all the cool apps and networking.

Enough of this, gonna continue reading papers, my eyes are not burning yet -_-

EDIT 2022-10-10:Wait what, the game Routine is back?! 8D

Autumn peers through the key-hole

The new job is progressing, but it's not a straight line for the higher-ups. I sometimes feel like I get too much work-wise, but I suppose I've always paid back with decent work. People keep telling me to worry less... But I need to get an apartment fast :p

The move btw, oh wow, that was not fun. I hope I won't do that too often in the future. Some things are still not 100% resolved, but seem to be possible to do from abroad.

Stranger Things 4 was fine. The series will never reach season 1 quality again. To expand the story and wrap things up, everything happened because of a bad boy. Rather meh. Dare to be mystical. Some great moments, pleasant arcs, very pretty, with an overall simple plot. I'm sure I'll enjoy the last sprint to the end. But I've seen something else over the course of spring that I've enjoyed really, really a lot.

Gravity Falls. At least season 1, just finished it a few days ago. I knew absolutely nothing about it, someone close introduced it to me without spoilers. Even the theme song is dynamite. Amazing stuff, why can't there be more of this kind of visual entertainment? Watch it! I'm so glad I still have one more full season with proper closure, and no sequels, prequels, midquels, or whatever garbage that greedos squeeze out (and get paid for so it continues :/).

Saw the Atomium from a plane, that brought back some memories. We should build some "silly" monuments from time to time, it's very invigorating.

Working my way through Dune and Anna Karenina. I watched one of the fan re-edits of the unholy Lynch version of Dune just before starting the book (one day I'll see the Villeneuve version), and it sure is a kooky film, but the atmosphere and music are great. The book oscillates between being too simplistic while explaining the thoughts of main characters, to building a really great universe. Overall I'm enjoying it most of the time, but some parts I trudge through. Anna Karenina is certainly the better crafted work, but I'm getting overloaded by the fancy clothes and carnal desires. I'm also enjoying it, but in very different ways :)

Been looking at barefoot shoes in the last few months. I've been thinking for some years how uncomfortable and stupid many shoes, and how too extreme the Vibram 5-finger shoes are, then suddenly the more normal-looking alternatives popped up in a yt video (ooh I can learn things from there?!). Didn't pull the trigger yet, went from Vivo, to Merrell, to I don't remember the rest, to Freet, let's see if I dare to. Funny side-note, some very old sandals from Japan turned out to be Merrells with a Vibram sole. Sometimes, just sometimes, the world is small.

Right, I played violin on a beach! A rather stony one, with loud waves to mask the horror that I summon with my instrument. Recommended!

There's more rattling around inside my cage of dreams and fading memories, but some things I need to keep to myself ;)

EDIT 2022-08-26: For some reason I decided to keep Karate Kid in the background while doing some other things, and was wondering "why are the pupils taking off and putting on their bags before joining the crowd in school"? Oh wait... I cannot put words on my thoughts, it's just so bleak. How can anything justify that? Oh well, just needed that off my chest, I think there was a mention of this in my last post. Another thought, half a year of war and those news are creeping further and further down the papers. Gotta focus, but not forget.

Crazy spring

Who could've thunk Covid would fizzle out and things would still be pretty bad?

Well, on a global scale anyway, with conflicts, insane inflation, a resurgence of anti gun violence which is somehow also fizzling out already in the newspapers, the surprise surge of travelers after covid etc.

Oh well, I'm almost out of this place for something new, some light! I'm so fed up and tired I only feel the excitement sometimes, but it's sufficient. So many things to take care of though, ugh. Around 40 days of leave from last year + this year up until the end of August, neat, almost 2 months of paid leave :D

Somehow Stranger Things 4 passed me by, I heard about it somewhere in the background noise of an experimental campaign, I should give it a whirl. Oh right, work-related stuff. Two experiments went ok this time, although we're still far from any kind of pleasant or "pretty" operations. Joined a guided tour of the new Targethalle at FAIR afterwards. Cute, big shiny hall with many puddles of water, will be great.

I cannot really think of much that I'll miss after I've left. I thought maybe the beer, but I didn't have much at all lately. Maybe some of the artificial vistas, the many criss-crossing forest paths are quite convenient for small trips, but I prefer the wildy wildy of Sweden. The relatively inexpensive restaurants with pretty decent food, at least compared to regular Swedish restaurants, I might miss those.

Only took 3 months, and now maybe another 3, will be busy moving and figuring out what to do with lots of time on my hands :) (I have some nice travel plans already though!)

Hmm... 2022...

Didn't do the annual intro post. Then suddenly we have another worst year ever. Coinkidonk?

I won't discuss the obvious topic, because there's better fora for that, and I personally cannot add anything helpful. And regarding fora vs forums, the former is only used by pretentious horrible people according to comments on various English grammar sites, so fits me perfectly.

Looked up the properties of the number 2022, and it is incredibly mundane. What a contrast.

Watched Arcane while working on things, was good. Some nice moments, and even though it was nicely made, it had a tangible aura of cookie-cutter. Difficult to explain. It made some maybe bold choices considering media nowadays, but they were all exactly what one would expect. Nothing great, but good, especially for something based on a game, tends to be very silly. Also started with Archive 81 for something random and different that I hadn't heard about before. Had an interesting premise, then suddenly demon faces show up on TV:s and everything goes supernatural, and I clocked out, that's just too stupid. It has the same problem as little girls or singing kids in horror films, how are they a threat?

My mind's overloaded from work again, so not sure what else to say, just, good luck to us all. Once in a while I should allow myself to end on a dark note :p