-
No psych-outs this time. The spread of COVID-19 remains a concern as states of emergency were declared in three additional prefectures (NHK). The number of vaccine doses administered per day has increased so there is that (Our World in Data).
-
It has seemed crazy for months that Tokyo will attempt to host the Olympic Games in two months but the level of insanity only compounds as the date draws closer. Opinion polls show the vast majority of people want it either cancelled or delayed (Twitter) but it’s also difficult to imagine the government backing down at this point. I could imagine multiple countries pulling out might change the dynamic but since it seems likely that athletes will be vaccinated, I guess they might figure the risk to themselves is minimal.
-
The kids and I have almost made it all the way through Luigi’s Mansion 3. John is particularly obsessed with the game and talks about it all the time. He’s also taken to reenacting scenes from the game with his toys which is just about the cutest thing ever. On the weekend, we tried to get past the final boss battle with King Boo but I’m worried the challenge may be beyond me. I checked a walkthrough and it doesn’t look like I’m missing a trick; I just need to have better timing.
-
Speaking of the kids, I thought they might enjoy watching TRON: Legacy. Parts of it grabbed their attention but once Sam goes off to meet his father, they basically lost interest. Some of that is a function of their ability to follow dialogue but I think it also spoke to the fact that the film isn’t particularly clear about what is going on. I showed them A New Hope a few months back and there’s a clarity to that story that’s missing in Legacy: the droids want to find Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan and Luke want to get off Tatooine, Luke wants to rescue Leia, Leia wants to get to the Rebels, the Rebels want to destroy the Death Star.
-
(Apologies for the segue reuse but) Speaking of storytelling, somehow I only found out this week that Michael Arndt (he of Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3 screenwriting fame) had made an epic 90-minute video essay on how to write an insanely great ending. In the essay, Arndt breaks down the ending to A New Hope, the Graduate and Little Miss Sunshine in an incredible level of detail. If you have any interest in storytelling, it’s a must-watch.
-
I didn’t make much progress with Deep Space Nine or Infinite Jest but I did read through a paper on the history of Objective-C. Some of the background I knew but as an aspiring Swift developer, it was still helpful to understand concepts that inform Swift. This is such a minor point but just understanding where the
function(arg1:arg:)function signature syntax comes from was worth the read alone. -
On the the Musicalsplaining episode discussing Om Shanti Om, it was mentioned that the track that begins Inside Man, ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya Bollywood Joint’ (Apple Music), is from another Bollywood film, Dil Se... Not a huge surprise but quite coincidental to hear only a month or so after I watched the film.
