Weekly digest 19
Sunday, March 16, 2025My eldest is now three, but he doesn't know it yet. We've had to postpone his birthday celebrations after he brought home two skin conditions from nursery this week: impetigo and hand, foot, and mouth, the latter of which has infected his baby brother.
It's also been data week at school, meaning I've had a lot of assessment marking and grading to do.
It's been a week.
Just one link this week, but I'd like to get it out there. We've all been observing the unfolding catastrophe of the Trump administration, but this incident really chilled me. Deleting history in perhaps the most naked expression of white supremacy I've heard about so far.
Playing
One curse/blessing of having sick kids is sometimes all they need is to be held while they sleep (unfortunately this is sometimes at 1am). But during these obligatory sendentary periods I've at least been able to play some games.
- I finished The Talos Principle, and whoa what a game. Rich philosophical themes and stunningly designed puzzles.
- I started The Outer Wilds, another game that's been on my "to play" list forever. I have only played for one hour (in the middle of the night last night), but I am already utterly enchanted.
Listening
Seven years ago I got rid of my CD collection due to being fully onboard with streaming. I did not realise at the time how streaming was changing my relationship with music, and how it would only get worse as streaming services got more algorithmic and "AI-powered".
Well, the best time to plant a tree was 7 years ago. I have bought an external optical drive, got a bandcamp account, and chosen a music player app (Sayonara), and started the journey toward having my own digital music collection again. The first thing I bought was a download of Distant Worlds, an album of concert recordings of Final Fantasy music, in flac. One, because I love Final Fantasy music (who doesn't), and two I have never tried the flac format before, and figured a high-quality concert recording would be a good test as to whether I can hear any difference to MP3.