I didn’t get manage to find a lot of time to write the next essay, so this will be short. It’ll be more like catching up, mixed with elaborating what I might be doing next. I hope you don’t mind, although not that you have any saying on that, this being my platform, not yours.
Anyway, in summary, I got my contract renewed. To be more precise, I got another post, but my tasks are pretty much the same, so it’s like a renewal of contract, nonetheless. That’s good.
I also travelled abroad, to a friend’s wedding, which was nice. I can’t remember when it was the last time that I had a vacation. Usually my travels are somehow work related, one way or another. It was a bit strange, not doing anything work related, just eating, drinking, chatting, walking, idling and sleeping. But it was pretty packed with stuff, so after the trip I felt like I needed a vacation from the vacation.
I also watched like four films in five days early in the month. Starting from the one that didn’t really do it for me, ‘Operation Mincemeat’ was alright, well done and all, but, yeah, let’s say it wasn’t that eventful. The most exciting thing was pondering whether one of the characters had a Welsh accent. To be fair, there was nothing wrong with the film and while it had its moments, but it just it just wasn’t that interesting. Then there was ‘The Northman’, which certainly was more eventful, but knowing what it was based on, the story was like on rails. It was like watching a revenge western set in the Viking Age. That’s not by any means a bad thing, as I tend to like westerns, but, yeah, this didn’t surprise me either. ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ took action to the next level, that’s for sure, but, what can I say, except that it’s one of those films that doesn’t have a script, really, and you are there just for the ride. I mean it’s basically just Tom Cruise flying some planes, driving a motorcycle and smiling at a woman. It’s fine, if that’s what you’re into. To be fair, it wasn’t just all that and then some more of it, although it was mainly just that. I think they managed to display the downside of being a maverick quite well. That jab by some other younger pilot, for being a loner, not having wife and kids, yeah, that landed. He kept a brave face, but it did seem to sting. ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ turned out to be the most eventful film and not just in terms of the action. There was plenty of action, but it was so all over the place, with a bit of this and a bit of that, without explaining it to you, like, at all, so that you had to piece together yourself. It’s demanding, yes, but that’s how I like it. No holding your hand. Figure it out. If you can’t do that, well, too bad, too bad for you. That’s your problem.
It’s not like I didn’t write anything this month. I did. It was mostly just elaborating the theory for that article that got rejected, mainly based on the feedback from the constructive reviewers, so #1 and #2. The one that had nothing to contribute, #3, won’t get the pleasure of having any effect the next version. That feedback so useless that you could summarize it as na-na na-na boo-boo. It was so misguided that it was bananas. Thanks for nothing. Anyway, I’m working on that text. I’ll probably post it online, in an extended form, so that you can actually get to read it one of these days, instead of, you know, a couple of years later, in some inferior form that has most of the good stuff cut and looking like something I wouldn’t write if I had my way. The actual articles, those proper ‘publications’, are just about the metrics anyway. If I were you, I’d read the version I prefer anyway.
I’ve also come up with some new ideas, but we’ll see if I can turn them into something later on. Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on what I have time for and what happens to attract me at the time, whether I want to do this and/or that.