-
On Saturday, we had a relatively early observation class at 9 am at Emma and John’s school. I could only observe Emma’s class (Eri watched John’s) but Emma looked to be faring well.
-
As a result of the observation being early, we had wrapped things up by 10 and I decided to throw caution to the wind and take Rowan to a meet-up for readers of Scott Alexander’s Astral Codex Ten that happened to be on that morning. That was a little dicey because Rowan often has a hard time letting Eri and I talk to each other and here I was taking him to a room (darkened, as it happened) filled with strangers who I’d be talking to instead of him. Fortunately, a steady supply of raisins, biscuits and an iPad were enough to keep him occupied as I became That Parent (i.e. the one who uses a screen as a baby sitter). Rowan was struggling by the two-hour mark but it was almost 1 at that point and I’d expected him to melt down long before that so was pleasantly surprised.
-
The meet-up went largely how I imagined a meet-up of that readership to go. I spent the time discussing (1) whether parents should introduce their children to pornography at a young age and (2) techniques to improve Japanese comprehension as a second language learner. I think I’d like to go to another but it is a bit of a trek out from our place and even if Rowan can be mollified with YouTube and sugar, I don’t know if I want do that regularly.
-
Monday was Sports Day and rather than do something fitting that theme, I skipped ahead to next month’s Culture Day and took all three kids out to Ueno to see the Monet exhibition that’s on at the National Museum of Western Art. This went decidedly less well than the meet-up. Partly because I didn’t resort to an iPad to keep Rowan occupied and partly because there were so many people that it was difficult for the kids to even seen the paintings. As a result, we speed ran the exhibition in about 20 minutes rather than the hour or so you’d have wanted to spend if you did it properly.
-
Law & Order is back and it’s fine. They’ve replaced yet another cast member before they replace either of the prosecutors which, at the risk of sounding solipsistic, feels like conscious decision targeting me. My experience wasn’t improved by pairing the season opener with Season 11’s ‘Hubris’ (TV Tropes). ‘Hubris’ is completely ridiculous but so much more substantive.
-
I finished season four of Slow Horses and was extremely disappointed. I’m not sure whether it reflects a weaker novel but this season had almost none of the elements I enjoyed in prior episodes. There will be a season five and I hope it’s a return to form.
-
I am extremely disappointed that Yoshe has not been watching Only Murders in the Building. She is a terrible friend.
-
I was talking to Brandon about Brat and specifically whether Charli XCX’s pronunciation of the lyric ‘looking like an icon’ in album opener ‘360’ intentionally sounds like ‘looking like a Nikon’. I contend that it is given the camera-related imagery in the lines surrounding it. Brandon disagrees. He is also a terrible friend.
-
Since I linked to the album three weeks ago, I don’t think I can link to Brat again. So know that while in my heart, that’s what I’m doing, I am in fact linking to Northeast Party House’s cover of ‘Heads Will Roll’ in the style of the A-Trak remix (Apple Music).
