GreyShuck

Not specifically for the eyes or posture, but for overall approach and attitude to situations like this:

• Marcus Aurelius’ quote: Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil. - and stoicism in general.
• Imagine them sitting on the toilet. You can’t take them too seriously like that.
• Take a longer perspective: consider whether this interaction will be of any significance at all in 10 years time?

I had a nap yesterday afternoon, which is probably the first for several months. However, I am on holiday for a couple of weeks now, so will probably be having more over that time.

Pizza, cheesecake, wife’s puppy eyes,

Shadow (2018) - beautifully designed and shot, particularly in the first half. Relatively gory for a wuxia: I didn’t mind but my wife, who is quite sensitive to such things, found it too much at times.

As with Zhang Yimou’s earlier House of Flying Daggers I felt that that it didn’t really reach a conclusion as much as ended the story and then drifted to a stop.

Definitely worth seeing though.

No. I’m not interested in interaction when I am buying or selling something. Nor playing games, or getting or giving social strokes or whatever. I will do that on separate occasions.

I will pay the price asked or I will look elsewhere.

I don’t drink either - or any other hot drinks. I have never liked them.

There was a while when, every other year or so, in the depths of winter, I would get it into my head that my tastes might have changed and would accept someone’s offer of something: tea, coffee, hot chocolate or whatever. But I’d always end up taking one sip and realise my folly.

And, no, Iced tea or similar does nothing for me either.

There is a window for “Where were you when…?” questions, I think.

• Kennedy? Nope.
• Moon landing? Just about.
• Challenger? Yep.
• Princess Di? Yep.
• 9/11? Yep.
• Lockdowns? Whatever…

I think that I am drifting past that window nowadays.

A satsuma. The penultimate element of my lunch.

The ultimate will be a banana, in a few minutes.

I’m peripatetic - I move between 3 different offices in a typical week, plus occasionally WFH. So:

• Coastal heath, birch & oak woodland, the sea off to the side and a nuclear reactor in the background. In the autumn we’ll get a starling murmuration in the later afternoon.
• A small stretch of rough grass and a river wall, with the top of a couple of abandoned military buildings over the top of that. The occasional hare or barn owl will pass by.
• The lawn and occasional ornamental trees of a moderately-sized country house with a shallow valley and more woodland behind that.
• A tussocky lawn, a couple of larch and a spectacular old oak, then a mixed alder and ash covert with a small stream behind that. Hares, a great spotted woodpecker and the occasional stoat put in an appearance.

Beautifully shot and some fine performances all round. Very much a character-based one though. Don’t go into it looking for action or fast-moving plot.

• The Studio - First episode - seems fun, but too similar to The Franchise just at the moment, and without the subtle wit of that one.
• The Righteous Gemstones - part way through season 4. This season lacks the coherence of the previous ones and seems to be be relying on continuous gross-out humour to make up for that. There was a natural end point with season 3. I will give this another episode, but may abandon it there.
• Adolescence - I completely agree with those who say that it isn’t the kids who need to see Adolescence, but the parents. I found that there was some heavy-handed moralising in eps 2 & 4, but 1 and 3 were intense and excellent and all of them were technically impressive.
• The White Lotus - another compelling season of the wealthy and damned paraded for our judgement. Fine performances from Posey, Issacs and Goggins particularly.
• The Residence - I wasn’t sure about episode 1. It seemed to be trying too hard and not nearly as funny as the director seems to think, but episode 2 was much improved. I’ll continue.

Threads (1984). I was in shock for a week when I first saw that. No horror film has come close.

Beach with other people? Nope. No interest at all.

Deserted beach, where you can roam, explore cliffs and rockpools and so on? Well, they have an atmosphere, so maybe sometime.

Forest? Yes, definitely. Hiking will take you away from anyone else, and there will be plenty of opportunities for wildlife spotting one way or another.

Chumbawamba’s discography - or even just this one on repeat.

Cornwall. Same group of friends as the last 30 or so years, in about 6 weeks time.

I’m in the UK. I worked at a couple of places in the '90s - sysadmin and IT trainer - where this was considered perfectly acceptable at the time, but I definitely wouldn’t now. I’m no longer in IT at all, but I don’t think that it is seen as acceptable very widely anywhere now.

Read using REadEra, play Forge of Empires - plus Lemmy via Voyager.

I had the usual lessons at primary school, but at the end of those myself and one other in the class still couldn’t swim. In the half century since then I have never found the need or the desire to try again.

Film

• Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) - An early Scorsese very much of its time. Ellen Burstyn’s performance holds up well, but it is difficult to find much else of enduring value in this one today - other than a portrait of the times.
• Moana 2 (2024) - Entertaining and wholesome enough, but adding nothing new.
• Minikillers (1969) - a short film without dialogue starring Diana Rigg immediately following her role in The Avengers tv show, and playing on her Mrs. Peel character: pitting her against a criminal gang that uses killer dolls. Rigg shines, and there are a couple of Avengers-like moments, but this is largely a curiosity for fans.

TV

• Miles From Nowhere - kiwi Moslem comedy not a million miles from We Are Lady Parts.
• Whiskey on the Rocks - Swedish satire based on an incident with a soviet submarine in the '80s. The first episode was great, but not sure whether it will hold up.
• Thou Shalt Not Steal - excellent aussie comedy that improves with each episode.
• Obituary - Irish dramady with a cold-case mystery underneath, Siobhán Cullen puts in a fine performance.

I have always read, but it is only in the last decade or so - prompted by the internet, of course - that have thought about counting the books that I do read. Since then, the lowest in a year has been around 6 (an extremely busy year) and the highest around 60. A normal year is probably closer to the latter than the former. I am half way through my 3rd book so far this year.

However, just at the moment I am reading that book - Consider Phlebas - partly as e-book and partly as an audiobook, depending on where I am and what I am doing. Does that count? I am finding myself doing this more often lately.