Week in review 2024-12
An astonishingly late update this week. 16mm film scans arrive, as do visitors!
Notes on the week
House viewings continue as House Hunt 2.0 ramps up into full swing. We still have a few weeks to find something, but it’s proving to be pretty tough. Our budget is reasonable, and our requirements are pretty fluid, but the level of demand in Rotterdam, as is the case across most of the world right now, is so high. Fingers crossed that the next few viewings actually trigger some follow up from the agents showing us around.
Elle’s 16mm film scans have arrived! Opening the file was one of the most stressful things I’ve witnessed in person, as the cost (both financial and time) has been so high for her working with this new medium. Thankfully, through a combination of luck and hours researching, it looks like everything went pretty well, and the shots are both exposed correctly and in focus! There is something very strange about watching footage shot in 2024, on a medium from the first half of the last century, there’s some weird mental mismatch going on in my head whenever I watch it back. Like, I know the people in the frame, why are they in the past? As much as the digital supremacist in me hates to admit it, there is a charm and a quality to the images that is very tough to describe, but really nice to watch. I can’t wait to see where she goes with this work.
We went to the art space, Time Window, to see a performance from one of Elle’s college friends and two other artists. The roughly hour or so long piece dealt with impermanence, and started with the audience placing little clay men into cups of water. The performance then went through dance, singing, roller blading, paper airplane making and more, and by the time the show ended our little men had dissolved into the water. It was pretty cool all in all, and we grabbed a drink on the way back home. A really nice evening.
Saturday afternoon we were out in town picking up some bits before Elle visited one of her friends, when I got a text from a friend from home, “We’re on the way!” alongside a picture of the motorway to Dublin. “To the Netherlands?” I replied, half joking - half panicking. They weren’t joking. Turns out a few months ago we had talked about when playing some games together, I had shared hotel recommendations and they had booked their flights. I obviously went to bed that night fully expecting my brain to remember this MAJOR IMPACT on our domestic life and pop it into our shared calendar. Brain did not. Brain did no such thing. Brain completely erased any memory of that conversation, and happily went about day to day life.
The last few days with the lads have been really fun, and the timing of it is spectacular. I had felt the smallest twinge of homesickness on Friday night before bed, and seemingly out of the blue two of my best friends show up on our doorstep. I can’t imagine that it will ever happen again that I’m in literally another country and my friends show up to hang out.
…..except, it happened again. Sunday afternoon I get a text from one of my friends from work, who a few months ago, had told me about a trip himself and some other friends from work were going to be taking through Europe, and how they would be passing through Rotterdam. If this is sounding familiar, refer to the previous tale of important news, filed away mentally to be captured officially later and duly forgotten. They arrive on Monday!
Links
Swinging Pendulum Cryptography
A ride along through Apple Park
How to actually use the notes you take
Mac Studio meets the Classic Mac with an iPad Screen
Reading
“I try all things, I achieve what I can.”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale
The experience of reading this book is as epic a journey as Ahab’s hunt across the seven seas. I sat bolt upright the other day and proclaimed to Elle that I had just finished the first full chapter of the book that I truly enjoyed. Not three chapter’s later Melville was back to his meandering pondering, describing the many attempts of scholars throughout history to accurately describe and capture the image of a whale. On a few occasions I’ve read entire books in one go, cover to cover. It’s the end of March and I’m just past 50%.
A bonus of having the lads visit this week has been getting a bunch of recommendations for new books to read. I don’t know where I’m going to get the time to fit them in, but I’ll try. And in the middle of it all, Sanderson announced ANOTHER secret project, one that has the entire Cosmere community in a state. Roll on 2025 and The Isles of Emberdark
Listening
Jersey are this hyper energetic electronic two piece. I know very little about them, but I came across this video of them performing in what looks like someone’s patio, and I’ve been hooked ever since. Their EP, “The World I’m Searching For” is a great listen too!