Hey, it's Christmas day! Waves at all who celebrate. And this will be my final weeknotes entry for the year!
The World
Eh, let's not think about the world for a bit and enjoy the season, no matter what shenanigans Elon Musk has gotten into this time.
My Week
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The first few weeks of December were still a bit hot, but the last week or so has thankfully brought us the much-awaited hanging amihan (Northeast monsoon) which means our weather is a lot better and nippier even. Should last until late January or early Feb, this is my favorite weather in this country.
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The week wasn't super busy, but there were a bunch of errands to do. Prep for the weekend activities (extra grocery runs), end of year errands, that kind of thing.
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Saturday: We had our immediate family reunion during lunchtime, though one of my bros was unable to come because his kids weren't feeling well, so we were incomplete. Was still a fun gathering, with lots of food that lasted us until the next day. I attended anticipated Mass in the evening, and was mildly annoyed that they did not play what I consider to be the seminal Filipino Christmas carol, Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit at the end.
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Sunday: We were originally supposed to go on an out-of-town maternal-side extended-family reunion, but our transportation plans fell through because of reasons (see: Saturday), so the day was free. The folks and I decided to go out to lunch at Maginhawa with one of their friends, and I went home separately afterwards because I wanted to take my afternoon walk through Teacher's Village. I used to walk through this area a lot back when I was in college and when I worked for a startup with offices in the area from 2017-2019, but haven't been back here since the pandemic. I also took the opportunity to take a quick stroll through the Quezon Memorial Circle and was surprised at the sheer number of people hanging out there on Christmas day. Lots of people walking around and entire families occupying the park tables with paper plates and tupperwares full of food. I suppose it's a nice and cheap way to spend time together on Christmas!
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Gaming:
- Finished Tunic!
- Single player games I'm still hoping to finish before the year ends: Shin Megami Tensei V (Switch). I am so close, but I just want to grind out a bit so I can get the secret ending.
- Still playing the regular card games:
- Marvel Snap
- Eternal
- Magic Arena. Arena had end of year stats!
- I found out that there's a new version of Duelyst on Steam. I enjoyed this game back in the day, but IDK if I have the bandwidth to add one more card game to my dailies!
Media Diet
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The nieces arrived at home Saturday to find me watching the first episode of Spy X Family and immediately berated me for watching the English dub lol. I used to prefer subs of course, but in recent years, I've preferred English-dubbed anime so that I can be watching episodes on a second monitor while doing other stuff. SXF seems like a light-hearted one so far, so it's good for background watching.
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The nieces also sat down with me after our get together to watch most of Spder-Man Into the Spider-Verse (2019). This is of course a rewatch for me, and for the nieces as well, as apparently it's one of their favorite films that they've seen a few times already. They had to go before the movie was done, but I ended up rewatching the rest of it anyway because it's still so good!
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022): Came out on Netflix last Friday. Terribly titled (I suppose A Benoit Blanc Mystery would have had peple wondering "Who?"), but so good. The film's plot is cleverly layered upon itself (like an onion!). I love all-star ensemble casts and I love "clever" films so this was a big hit with me (though I can be a bit snippy when someone keeps asking me questions while watching. I'm also trying to pay ettention!) A worthy successor to the original, and one of the film's characters turns out to be a well-timed reminder of a certain real-life tech bro.
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White Collar (2009-2014): When I got access to D+, I was exctied about the plethora of old series from the 2000s-2010s that were there that I could binge as many of them I never fully watched back in the day (scheduled TV!). The first one I chose to binge was White Collar. I remember watching some episodes from the first couple of seasons back in the day and really enjoyed the chemistry between the leads. The rest of the series does not disappoint; each episode is fun and each of the six short seasons (each of them 16 eps or less, short for an American series) has an overarching arch that never gets too ridiculous. My favorite of the seasons has to be the back half of season 5, when the tables are turned on Neal and he finds himself the victim of a long con, although RT says this is the lowest rated of the 6 seasons (but still a decent rating). The series ends well, with an extra short season, and a fitting (although a bit predictable) end for our protagonist and his friends.
Some Links of Interest
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It’s the same. It’s always been the same. Stop benefitting from the internet, it’s not for you to enjoy, it’s for us to use to extract money from you. Stop finding beauty and connection in the world, loneliness is more profitable and easier to control. Stop being human. A mindless bot who makes regular purchases is all that’s really needed.
Great essay by Catherynne M. Valente on how commercialization keeps trying to eat the internet.
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Why the super rich are inevitable: Interactive article that demonstrates the inevitability of inequality
Visit the Links page for more links of interest.
An Image That Made Me Laugh
(Clarification: Not my picture, found it somewhere online, can't recall anymore)
This coming week:
For me probably just wrapping up / end of year stuff, writing some blog posts, gathering some stats, thinking about the year to come, etc. Relevant tweet.
I wish good cheer to all of you this holiday season!
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