Weeknotes #7: You missed a spot
I missed last week's weeknotes. Instead, I spent the weekend visiting some friends and their kids. I had a very fun time, but it was also pretty exhausting, and that just did not leave me with the beans to write up some a blog post.
Which leads me onto the theme of the week:
Teetering on the edge of burnout
November and beyond has just been a rising feeling of everything being almost Too Much. It's like going through life with that Zelda low-hearts beeping constantly being in the background – one more hit and you're out. Wizard needs rest badly.
This shouldn't come as a huge surprise. I always struggle a bit at this time of year for a variety of reasons, and on top of that I've had some health issues that have been taking it out of me. I spent a longer time than average in a state of covid lockdown and even now I feel like I'm still trying to find that balance when it comes to Doing Stuff outside my house. I don't want to revert to full hermit mode, but I don't want to completely fry my batteries either.
I have tried to counteract this by cancelling or postponing as many obligations as I can. I think this has helped a bit. This weekend in particular I dipped on several activities that I didn't actually have to do, and I do feel a bit refreshed for it. It's nice to just slug it up on the sofa and watch movies and write.
Ideally I would take some more time off work, but I'm not really in a position to do that right now. Gotta hang on for those bank holidays, I guess. Ultimately the issue is the fucking hideous state of the world jesus christ it's all so awful but for the most part that is out of my hands.
Also I'm trying to stay off Reddit. Reddit is the brain-killer.
Fuck the Coke advert
Brief interlude to just say: fuck the stupid Coca Cola Christmas advert. This advert has always been ass and I have never, ever understood why people get genuinely excited about it or see it as some essential part of the holiday that gets them into the Christmas spirit. I am not religious, it is not up to me to dictate what Christmas should be, but fucking hell we gotta draw the line somewhere.
This year Coke have somehow managed to make it suck even more by making it unapologetic AI slop. I mean, fuck all adverts, but especially fuck this one.
Media consumption corner
I've watched some good films recently, including Pillion, which was especially funny to watch in a Picturehouse cinema for reasons that will become apparent if you see it. I also thought the new Benoit Blanc movie was a very good time. But my newest favourite is Swing Girls.
Swing Girls is a Japanese film from 2004 about a group of aimless teenage girls who discover a love for playing jazz music after they accidentally give their school's entire brass band food poisoning. There are a handful of fat jokes that I could have done without, but overall it's a really sweet, warm-hearted film about figuring out what gives you joy in life, and I watched the whole thing with a big smile on my face. If you are sad, I can almost guarantee this movie will put you in a good mood. And you can watch it (in absolutely terrible quality) on YouTube!
I've also been reading a lot of "best albums of the year" lists. This has put me onto Oklou's album choke enough, which is fantastic (and also has an underscores feature – I'm sensing a theme here).
I have some loose ideas of putting together a flashier list of my personal "best of the year" (with custom CSS and everything!) but we'll see if I can muster the enthusiasm to pull it off. I feel like this website is a bit visually boring compared to a lot of the ones on Neocities but also... whatever. If it ends up just being text, so be it!
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