Trying to force weeknotes back into Sundays, at least for the last few entries of the year. The year ends on a Saturday though, so I'm still wondering if the Jan 1 weeknotes should be "Weeknotes 2023-01-01" or "2023 Weeknotes #1". How about "2023 Weeknotes #0", since it won't really cover the year 2023 yet?

The World

Still not paying too much attention to the world. It might be better overall for my mental health. Elon's Twitter seems to be going further into the right-wing conspiracy deep end based on these nonsense Twitter files exposes. The US exchanged an athlete imprisoned on a minor charge for a Russian arms dealer. Someone crashed the Game Awards to hype Bill Clinton? The World Cup still isn't done yet!

My Week

• Yet another not-too-busy week for me. I generally find going out in December to be tedious due to the horrendous traffic in Metro Manila so I just generally don't go anywhere if possible. Someone asked me why I wasn't going to the Christmas party afterparty of my former company to see old friends, and the main reason is traffic. (The second reason is that they're going to an inuman place and I don't drink.) If friends want to meet up while they're in town, I will try to suggest meeting up in early January instead (January is the best!), or at the very least that lull week between Christmas and New Year's when everyone else just wants to stay at home and be lazy.

• I am sometimes amused how even as adults (allegedly) we are still vulnerable to many of the same anxieties and insecurities we had even as teenages, although presumably we are able to handle and face them better. Things like worrying about what other people think or the fear of missing out can still strike even the most well-adjusted of adults.

• It's early December, which is the season for online platforms to give us our stats for the year (usually completely ignoring anything we do in the last month of the year!). I got my Spotiffy Wrapped, Duolingo Year in Review, and Reddit Recap. I love stats, so I will probably be collecting some of my own again this year and publishing them in the upcoming yearnotes.

• Gaming:

  • Finally wrote the Street Fighter V blog post I wanted to write. Took a while because stats!
  • Still playing some card games on the regular:
    • Eternal: No notes, just grinding.
    • Magic Arena: Finally managed to get a 7-win draft in Brothers War on Arena! Not sure if I'll still be drafting it moving forward or if I should shift focus to constructed. New Explorer Anthology and Alchemy drops are happening this coming week I think, so I might try Explorer or maybe Alchemy draft if that's available.
    • Marvel Snap. Still super grindy, but at least I finally got Wong.
  • SMT5: Every time I push forward the main quest, there is surprisingly still more to do. Still hoping I can put this one away before the year ends!
  • I managed to resolve my PC GamePass from before (mostly by buying a new computer), so I decided to start a shorter game available on the service, which was Tunic. It's fairly good and I'm already like 12 hours in which is a lot (for me) in a week, which just shows how much I enjoy it. HLTB says average completionist time is around 22h, so I'm hoping I can finish this before year end as well.

Media Diet

Watched a bunch of stuff this week, mostly via Disney+:

• Andor season 1: A very different kind of Star Wars show. Less action-y and more intrigue and slow burn and backroom dealings and hiding from the authorities and organizing in secret and escaping from prisons. No jedi or lightsabers in sight! Gives us a good overview of how the Empire actually manages the day to day of the galaxy. Looking forward to season 2.

• Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: Fun, but felt very low-impact MCU-wise (not necessarily a bad thing) and might have been a bit too feel-good Christmas-y for me, I found it a bit corny. Gives Drax and Mantis a bigger spotlight. I did enjoy that one Christmas (or at least what aliens thought of Christmas) song near the start.

• The Princess (2022): Easy side watching, low-plot medieval Die Hard where the lead is an unassuming princess unexpectedly trained by Asian warriors in the fine art of tearing through hordes of incompetent mooks.

Some Links of Interest

• Recommendations for Japan travel | Kalzumeus Software

• There is no social media alternative - Ed Bott's READ.ME

• Pluralistic: Freedom of reach IS freedom of speech (10 Dec 2022) – Pluralistic: Doctorow on moderation, algorithms and end-to-end communication platforms

• 52 things I learned in 2022. | by Tom Whitwell | Magnetic Notes Medium: I remember a number of these. Maybe I should do one of these for next year, start an open file to keep track

• A Creator of ActivityPub on What’s Next for the Fediverse - The New Stack:

• A year of new avenues: Robin Sloan on the possible ways forward for the fediverse and even the internet in general

  I want to insist on an amateur internet; a garage internet; a public library internet; a kitchen table internet. At last, in 2023, I want to tell the tech CEOs and venture capitalists: pipe down. Buzz off. Go fave each other’s tweets.

• I wrote a story for a friend - by Julian Gough: A longish story about the Minecraft End Poem and the gift economy vs the corporate economy

Visit the Links page for more links of interest.

This coming week:

• Honestly just want to relax for the rest of December, although I do have the usual end of year things I want to get done.
• I think new Explorer Anthology and Alchemy drops are happening on Arena this week.