The World
I have honestly kind of tuned out the rest of the world this week and focused on my own stuff for a while. We could all use a break from all the bad news.
I do know that the Depp/Heard defamation trial has concluded, a media spectacle/shitshow that went on far too long and was apparently plagued by all sorts of misinformation. Here's a good Twitter thread I read about it. I also like the coverage by Today in Tabs.
Links of Interest
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Intro to the Web Revival #1: What is the Web Revival? | Melon's Thoughts:
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What happens to TLDs when their country stops existing? | astrid.tech:
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For the upside: Ben Werdmüller on why working in tech or startups isn't always about the financial upside
Visit the Links page for more links of interest.
My Week
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Had some words about eighteen year-olds that I just had to get out.
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Still doing some backend work on this site. I did roll out some blogroll updates this week though.
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Starting to get back into the groove of regular, longer walks outside of the subdivision, weather permitting. It may take a while to get back to my peak step counts from 2016-2017 though.
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Here's something I sent to one of my chat groups in response to "shield hero kicks a chicken":
I might be missing the regular drawing/sketching just a little bit.
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Thursday: I had to go with my dad on an errand to Makati. He doesn't like to drive that far anymore, so we opted to take a Grab ride. My first one outside of QC since the pandemic started. Predictably overpriced, but it was much easier to get a ride than I expected. It helps that we avoid rush hour; we left home past ten and were done with our business by lunch time. We took a cab for a quick (and much cheaper) ride back home. I thought about lingering in Makati a bit, since I hadn't been there for a while, but I also had no desire to be stuck there anywhere close to the afternoon rush hour. Nobody wants that.
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I found some warts on my back last week and my mom recommended this natural oil drops thingy that she had used before to get rid of her, so I've been having someone put them on my warts the past week, and the drops sting like hell. I don't really care too much about the warts in terms of appearance (since they're mostly hidden when I have a shirt on), but it triggers my OCD when I feel them on my skin, so I figured it would be a good idea to get this over with. Each session annoys me for like 15 minutes though. Not sure if this is a good thing to write about on the blog, but it does help me appreciate more how a lot of people take pains to maintain good skin care or such.
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Gaming:
- I am about 45 hours in to Triangle Strategy on Switch, and I just got my first ending today. I have had to downscale to Normal difficulty though (No shame in that, or so I keep telling myself.) I'm going to try for at least the two more normal endings, then if I feel up for it, will do New Game+ for the secret ending.
- Still regular daily grinding in Eternal and Magic Arena. No big events recently, other than throwing some gold away on the Standard Metagame Challenge. There's an Alchemy SNC Premier Draft event I might want to try, but I'm not sure if I'll have time.
- Started playing: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Steam)
- Street Fighter VI trailer was released this week and was pretty sweet. I will need to get either a PS5 or a PC upgrade by next year in order to play it though. And hopefully I managed to at least make Gold rank in Street Fighter V by then!
Media Diet
It seemed unlikely I would be watching Top Gun: Maverick anytime soon, so instead I decided to watch a bunch of Tom Cruise movies this week.
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Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)
- Saw this one on Netflix and watched it first without knowing it's a sequel. Reasonable action movie, some pretty good action sequences and I like Cobie Smulders' role here. The bad guy merc who takes it personal with Reacher was also well-portrayed.
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Jack Reacher (2012)
- I found the first film more boring than the first one. Probably mostly because Reacher spends a lot of the film quietly investigating instead of being on the run like in the sequel. Rosamund Pike stars opposite Cruise here, but she isn't given much to do except look doubtful and to get kidnapped.
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Top Gun (1986)
- Have surprisingly never seen this film in full, though of course I knew from internet memes several of the major events (Goose, "You can be my wingman", etc). Dogfighting sequences were great. Some scenes seemed unnecessarily homoerotic. Was nothing like the NES video game which was my first exposure to Top Gun. After watching this film I found myself singing "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" out loud while I was walking. Still have the earworm as I write this actually.
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Still reading: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. The going is slow, mainly because I am lazy.
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Ongoing TV Status:
- I hadn't realized it last week, but new seasons of The Boys and The Orville kicked off this week, and I also got started on the Obi-Wan series.
- Caught up: NCIS, The Flash season 8, The Simpsons, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, The Orville season 3
- Behind: Superman and Lois, Young Justice, Obi-wan Kenobi
- Yet to start: Cobra Kai season 4, The Boys Season 3
- I also watched the latest set of episodes for Letterman's "My Next Guest..." show on Netflix, mostly as background noise. I don't really consider these as "Ongoing TV", but they were reasonably good interviews, even the ones with celebrities I didn't really know (Billie Eilish, Kevin Garnet and Cardi B.) I most enjoyed the Ryan Reynolds and Will Smith and Julia Louis-Dreyfus ones since I was more familiar with their work. (The Will Smith one was filmed before the Oscars.)
This coming week:
- Ms Marvel should be starting up this week as well.
- Busy week for me errand-wise; mostly having to assist my parents with medical stuff. I asked my mom how we would handle this kind of thing if I was working full-time again, and the answer was "I don't know."
Reviews in this post