Monthly Log: 09.26
Despite writing very little in here, I've got a lot to say.
Books
- ๐ Intrigo a Tokyo (Keigo Higashino): To quote the previous comment I had on my Now page: "The author died recently and I thought I had this on my list but it was actually another book with a very similar title in the Italian translation: "Intrigo a Tokyo" by Hotate Shinkawa. These two books, namely "Crime in Tokyo" and "Intrigue in Tokyo", are originally named "Hakuchล to Kลmori" ("The Swan and the Bat", but titled "Guilt" in the USA) and "My Ex-Boyfriendโs Last Will and Testament". What's wrong with the editorial department??". That said, I liked it but I didn't really get why he's critically acclaimed, or maybe I expected something different; the mystery was alright, but the focus on the characters' psyche was what kept me interested. 700+ pages and I never got bored, but as I reached the end I thought "why was this 700 pages long? It doesn't feel like much has happened". I suppose it was... mundane, in a sense? Not a bad thing on its own, but it made me wonder. I'd like to read "Suspect X" next and refine my opinion on the author.
- ๐ Ralph 124C 41+ (Hugo Gernsback): This is a book I went into knowing it was very poorly written, but since it has historical value as one of the first sci-fi novels and also "the book that predicted so many modern inventions" I wanted to at least give it a try. I dropped it halfway through because not only it is poorly written, it also oozes the personality of the worst person you could meet in your daily life! I don't want to judge Gernsback in any way since he's a dead man I don't know personally and I find it in poor taste, but the whole thing reeks of something an Elon Musk fanboy might write. And I really cannot stand that right now. I'll add that, although some ideas are certainly interesting, constantly banging the drum to "science is amazing! Look at all the things we can do, how primitive it was before now!" and refusing to explore any societal repercussion of said inventions is so cheap it doesn't even feel like sci-fi: it feels like a middle manager is explaining his stupid idea and wants me to execute it with due date yesterday. I have no ill will towards Gernsback but I do have it against the guy who wrote the preface and said he's better than Wells and Verne. How dare you?!
- ๐ La porta nel muro (H. G. Wells): What I thought was the Italian edition of Well's "The Door in the Wall", it actually includes also "The Plattner Story", "The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham", "The Crystal Egg" and "The Magic Shop". I'll be honest: I enjoyed "The Time Machine" previously but these ones didn't reach the same heights! My experience with Ralph made me remember I wanted to read "The Door in the Wall" ever since reading about it in a chapter from Sacks' "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat" (about "Incontinent Nostalgia"). It was alright, but it ended right when I thought it was about to tell me something... and I realized it was never a story about the Door, it was about the narrator. It caught me off guard, since I almost expected to read a different genre (the same happened with "Slaughterhouse No. 5", which I only liked in retrospective much later). "The Plattner Story" was kind of the opposite: all about the concept (loved it! Reminded me of "Flatlandia"), not a lot about the characters. My favourite of the bunch was definitely "The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham": cool concept, told in an intriguing way, and I could picture its two characters clearly as the story went on... which only made "The Crystal Egg" more disappointing, and "The Magic Shop" didn't spark much of an emotion either besides "This reminds me of Sound Horizon's Nein, I wonder if Revo thought of Wells". I should read something longer from Wells, like "War of the Worlds"...
Movies
- ๐ฅ The Thursday Murder Club: Watched this with my family when my parents came visiting and it felt like a serendipitous propaganda to shove them in a very expensive hospice someday. That said, the plot was... alright. The whole movie felt like a poor adaptation of a better book, and this is the opinion of someone who didn't read it. I don't know. Some jokes, the pacing, some scenes that felt like they were there just to wink at the viewer... it felt cheap in a way I really don't like. It's an okay movie.
- ๐ฅ Exit 8: Watched it with my wife instead of Backrooms (which we'll watch later this month), mostly lured in by the use of Ravel's Bolero. Yes. It's because of Digimon. Cool concept, the main characters could've used less time just standing there staring at danger and run away instead, because it feels like a lot of the runtime is just... that. I had a theory at some point that involved time travel and iterated on the themes of the movie and I bet that there would've been time to actually pull it off, in that case! Anyway it's a good movie, entertaining enough and with a pretty cool direction and sound design. And my theory hasn't been completely debunked, so it's my personal headcanon.
Videogames
- ๐ฎ Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence: Finished it right at the beginning of the month. I'll be brief: I liked it, but I had very little fun with it. Its got a lot of cool ideas, and the fight with The End was my personal high (holy shit that was fun), but I mostly fumbled through the whole thing and rarely felt like I had improved in mastering the tools the game gave me, as it kept shuffling cards around. I loved the stealth aspect of the first two and in here it's trivial, especially thanks to CQC. I'm glad I played it (and it was fun to do it with a friend), but by the time it was over I was glad I didn't have to play anymore. Also I really cannot stand Eva, can't believe I missed Meryl...
The Good Stuff
- how i organize my life with a journal โ goals/habit tracking, hobonichi planner, stationery & tools: I love Tekkons' stuff, and this video was of great inspiration now that I'm switching from a Hobonichi Day Free to a Cousin. Definitely gonna steal some ideas.
- Typewriter interview with Kevin Huizenga: "Work every day. It's a "muscle" that strengthens or weakens, as to time and use, like running, it's better to slow your pace for a bit than it is to stop โ it's harder to go from zero; the muscles tighten up. Of course saying "work" everyday means also "play", it's a joy even to practice your scales, for the piano player. Have some go-to routines, stuff you don't get sick of doing. I draw clouds, fire, I copy something, some photo or cartoon. Meditative practice, filling space with lines, listening for the mind's eye to tell you what do next... then again... and again..." believe me, practicing my scales has never been a joy.
- How this 1977 book led to The Sims: I watched this video expecting a fun The Sims trivia to tell my wife (who's a big fan), but this ended up touching on... a lot of things. Crazy interesting video, I love when good design highlights a healthy relationship with the people who engage with it.
- Why I Love AI: Blog title that made me jump on my seat if I didn't know who was sharing it, it's actually a pretty nice (although... melancholic) post about computer science and "AI" from someone who's been in the field since the early 2000s. It's also about research and the kind of playful curiosity that also made me fall in love with computers in the first place, so I relate a lot with that.
- The Gaps We Leave: Stellar article from Alli and possibly one of my favourites from her. I think often about the power of the unsaid, especially in art. We should cherish silence so that we can give value to well-crafted sound, not look for noise at all costs.
- The 'Shibuya Punk' Era We Lost: Speaking of noise! I love Shibuya Punk, man. I almost teared up at the end of the video, because I feel like the spirit of it is something that really never left me.
- Can You Live Inside a Playstation 2?: Interior designer furbishes a PS2 as if it was an apartment building. I like tiny dioramas and this made me scream a bit inside (the good kind). Also, that looks SICK.
Misc
- I've watched YoRHa Girls with my friend Laxy and I liked it, the difference in budget really shows from the original YoRHa Boys. Some things I wasn't too convinced of (they talk about dresses because they're girls this time!! Okay then make the boys talk about football idk), but it was pretty fun. Surprisingly, I'm a bit fonder of the original characters than their female counterparts. Now we only need to watch the male version of the original YoRHa and I'm a bit sad about it.
- I've started writing every day (or at least I try) in German on LangCorrect! It's very frustrating to never get a whole post right, but I'm doing my best. Before the end of the year I'd really like to level up my German.
- I've sorted a lot of files and papers through Johnny Decimal and I can really feel it on my workflow. Love it. I'm also a lot more inclined to write templates, or simple scripts to automate stuff, and since I started getting into REAPER I'm pretty excited about learning ReaScript and use it for the good of my mind. Just today I spent some time copy pasting loop metadata in .ogg files, and I kept thinking "this could be automated, if I figured out a good workflow in the first place and kept going from there..."
- Of course a bunch of issues came up and now I have to deal with them all at once. I'm going to ignore the "all at once" part and try to tackle them one by one, even though there will always be someone who's not okay with that.