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We went to DisneySea!
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As discussed previously, we (really, I think it’s me) like to go to Tokyo Disney Resort at least once a year. Last year, we realised in the final days of December that we hadn’t been but were able to squeeze in a last-minute visit to Disneyland on New Year’s Eve. I wanted to be a bit more organised this year and so I’ve been waiting for the right weekend for the past few weeks. Friday rolled around last week and the forecast for Sunday was pleasant, a car was available to hire and DisneySea was not sold out. I pounced and two days later we were there.
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The day itself was fun. I commented to Eri that this might be one of the best visits we’ll ever have given that the kids are old enough to go on rides but not too old that they (a) don’t want to go on rides with their parents or (b) want to go on the more challenging rides that we (really, I think it’s me) don’t want to ride. As with my previous visit, I think the stand-out ride for us was Flouder’s Flying Fish Coaster, although an honourable mention goes to Scuttle’s Scooters which we road three times (!).
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I was a little disappointed that Tower of Terror is out of service for all of October. I don’t think it’s a ride I’d enjoy but Eri and Emma might have liked to go on it and the fact it isn’t operational I think pushes up the wait times of some of the other popular rides (we didn’t even try to go on Soaring which had a consistent two-hour-plus wait throughout the entire day).
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I made another app! It’s in App Review so isn’t something publicly available but Reportage is meant to be a replacement for the venerable Reporter. Like Reporter, Reportage is about answering surveys randomly throughout the day. I was amazed at how fast I was able to turn this one around. On Friday, I prototyped some web-based designs for the app and within a couple of hours, I had something working on my phone. This was my first time prototyping designs using Claude’s ‘artifacts’ system and it was a lot of fun. I did the same thing to work out the app icon. It’s difficult for me to imagine not working like this on future apps.
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My weight has gone back up to around 71 kg. Perhaps I need to make an app for this too.
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I’m getting a little nervous about the time it’s taking to process the application to extend my visa. Back in 2021, it took about two weeks. That’s about how long it’s been this time but there’s no sign yet of what the outcome will be.
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Jill Bearup has a 10-minute(ish) video essay on Judi Dench’s M in Goldeneye. I still think Goldeneye is one of the best Bond outings and so I’m always eager to see more positive appraisals.
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Mum sent me a YouTube video featuring the Catholic theologian, Bishop Robert Barron, discussing Gad Saad’s concept of ‘Suicidal Empathy’ (Wikipedia). Barron and the host, Matthew Petrusek, are unsurprisingly complimentary with the concept and while I disagree with them generally, I do think large sections of the left went awry in the 2010s and that there’s something to the notion that some of that was due to the way in which the individual’s perspective was elevated to a place of paramount importace.
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I know that Taylor Swift going back to Max Martin and Shellback for a song where she sings about being wronged by an ex-boyfriend is about as formulaic as it gets but I am sometimes a complete sucker for that formula (Apple Music).
