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In his weeknotes for the week ending 22 November, Phil Gyford wrote about craving to see other people. I’ve seen similar sentiments during the pandemic and have often wondered why I don’t feel the same. It’s not because I’m going out more than others; to the contrary, I’ve barely left the house in the past eight (nine?) or so months. I almost never go into the office, we have pretty much all our shopping delivered and Emma and John play at the park down the road from our house. Are Emma and John the reason? They’re a constant source of new experiences. Would I feel differently if they weren’t around?
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I kept up with the Advent of Code challenges over the past week; however, I’m disappointed to say I wasn’t able to solve part 2 of Day 13 on my own. After spending a good chunk of Sunday trying to come up with a solution that would complete before the heat death of the universe, I resorted to reading the answers on Reddit (specifically this one). I had the inkling of a successful approach but didn’t make the critical connection to changing the interval as I successfully matched the numbers. I’m really disappointed in myself for cracking. The most frustrating aspect is that the puzzle that broke me last year was also a number theory one.
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I had a nice chat with Brandon over the weekend about the new AirPods Max headphones that Apple announced. Brandon’s bought a pair and while I’m curious, there’s no way I can justify the ¥70,000 price tag. Not least when they don’t seem particularly suited for airline travel (which is primarily when I would imagine using them). I am possibly in the market for something, though. My current AirPods are charging unreliably again and sometimes require multiple insertions in the charging case before they form a connection.
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‘Braggart’ is a strange word. According to Wiktionary, it’s from a Middle French word, brageur and while it seems like it must be related to the English word ‘brag’, Wiktionary says that’s most likely derived from a Celtic or Old Norse word.
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I wrote an article about Ted Lasso. The short version is that it’s a good show and Ted Lasso is a great character.
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The best thing I read this week was an essay by Maciej Ceglowski about what we should be worried about in the wake of the 2020 U.S. election. Zeynep Tufekci posted it to her newsletter, Insight, as a counterpoint to the warnings she’s been raising about the institutional failure of the Republican Party to accept Joe Biden’s victory. Ceglowski thinks we should be worried about the enduring electoral strength of the Republican Party—and the likelihood that this strength will continue for the foreseeable future.
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The second best thing I read was a personal essay in the New Yorker about being on Wheel of Fortune. Yes, really.
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One of my favourite songs of all time is the White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army’. One of my favourite shows of all time is Westworld. Unsurprisingly, I’m a big fan of Ramin Djawadi’s instrumental cover from the second season (Apple Music).
