Weeknotes #315

I feel like I earned some kind of boy scout badge after receiving a letter from the bank saying that the interest rate of our home loan has been increased. It’s not very much—and certainly by Australian standards laughably low—but it was still a feeling I’m hoping I don’t need to experience too frequently.

I loved John Gruber’s ‘The Names They Call Themselves’:

Our goal should not be to make fascist or Nazi apply to Trump’s movement, no matter how well those rhetorical gloves fit his short-fingered disgustingly bruised hands. Don’t call Trump ‘Hitler’. Instead, work until ‘Trump’ becomes a new end state of Godwin’s Law.

A week or so ago, OpenAI made their version of ChatGPT for tight-arses, AKA ChatGPT Go, available worldwide. I switched over to it but won’t see any changes until my current billing period ends. I’ll keep you all apprised.

For some reason, Are Media, the publishers of the Australian Women’s Weekly started geoblocking certain users who try to access certain Australian Women’s Weekly websites (like their food site). I’m not sure why that is. Is it a rights issue? Does it substantially reduce the volume of attacks? Was it even intentional? I wrote to Are Media but haven’t heard back. We’ll add that to the apprising list.

You might be wondering why I am even aware that Are Media is doing this. The answer is that a couple of weeks ago, somebody linked to the Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book. This is one of those moments that you can’t really have any more. I read and re-read that book an embarrassing number of times as a child. I have no interest in baking—or cooking at all really—but I loved looking at the birthday cakes and imagining which was the one I would ask Mum to make. I had no idea that anyone was doing it but me. On the one hand, it’s lovely to discover that it wasn’t just me. On the other… have we lost something by being so aware of the relative popularity of everything?

I first started watching video essays on YouTube before I had moved from my using my Google Apps account to using my Google Account. As a result, YouTube occasionally suggests videos that I have seen but which it doesn’t realise I’ve seen. This week, it was Big Joel and his video about Moana. I agree 100%. Moana remains a film I always want to like more than I do and I think Big Joel gets at the reason why it leaves (some people) a bit cold.

Speaking of Big Joel, in previous entries, I’ve identified him as ‘Henry Jackson’. I think that may very well have been incorrect. His first name does seem to be ‘Henry’ but I can’t find any reliable evidence that his surname is ‘Jackson’. My apologies.

I finished Tomb Raider. The logical thing would be to now move to Rise of the Tomb Raider (especially since that’s the game I interrupted playing so that I could go back and replay TR). I’ve of course now gone back to Rocket League.

Remember Macklemore? I spent quite a bit of time this week listening to ‘Can’t Hold Us’ (Apple Music).