Maedhros

You need a bachelor's degree to be police over here and I support that. Defunding isn't necessary, but spend all that money on education instead. -- On a complete sidenote, North-Dakota has the happiest people in the US. Kentucky the most miserable ones. According to this https://amerisleep.com/blog/happiest-states/ anyway. Anything to take from this? States up north seem to do better than states in the south. Worldwide Finland has the happiest people according to https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world - that I refuse to believe knowing Finns to be miserable bastards. Danes are far more happier in my experience.

Was home alone yesterday. Made pan fried chicken breast (@ 60 celsius, with lots and lots of butter and garlic), ramson that I picked in a nearby forest, celeriac puree and a red wine sauce. Paired with a beautiful red from my favorite aussie winemaker - By Farr. Wish I made more!

Some of the shows I've seen lately: New season of Stranger things started out nicely, but lost all suspense and nerve along the way. The first two episodes of Obi-Wan were very mediocre, as pretty much all Star Wars content after Empire Strikes Back. Waste of potential as usual. Barry season 3 is great, and a true contender for best show of the year. That motorbike chase scene in the last episode was a highlight.

Been playing Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI (2008) these last years every now and then. The game is really easy once you master it, so I try to give myself really difficult challenges such as letting the game go on for a few years, and then take over a faction that's about to be destroyed. I wish there was a better editor for the game, as there's so much potential in it.

I rather liked the new Batman film. It's rather low key, so not neccesarily something you need to watch at the cinema. More a crime thriller than a superhero film. It should have been at least 15 minutes shorter, and a few scenes annoyed me - but overall good. Also, best portrayal of Gotham so far.

The Kanye documentary was solid though, and rather insightful for someone like me who isn't familiar with the hip-hop culture of the early 00s.

Watching the winter olympics. "We" (saying that as someone who don't even know how to ski) just set the record for most gold medals in a single winter olympics ever, with 15 gold medals. If you ever need a new sport to watch, I recommend biathlon. Combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. If you miss a shot during the shooting rounds, you get penalty laps or added time. It's really fun, and can be really nerve-wrecking to watch, especially at the last shooting round.

Boba Fett show was incredibly lacklustre. Reeks of bad planning. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/02/amazon-the-rings-of-power-series-first-look I'm so annoyed Amazon didn't buy the rights to The Silmarilion and Unfinished Tales. They're gonna make a show based on the second age with next to no source material. So, basically fan fiction. Lame.

Except Finrod. Finrod was awesome.

Please don't suck.

I saw the new Matrix film. Despite a lot of cringe, I didn't dislike it as much as I thought I would.

Mark Rylance is brilliant. Wolf Hall is the best show no one saw.

Finished Witcher season 2. Overall quite pleased with it. It's certainly much better than Wheel of Time, but I hope that show gets an equivalent upgrade in quality for its second season. Jaskier though, meh. Still annoys me that they're reducing him to almost 100% comic relief. In the books he's learned, funny and cunning in his own way. His friendship with Geralt feels very genuine there. Hope to see more of that in season 3.

https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-stock-act-violations-penalties-consequences-2021-12?r=US&IR=T Rules for thee and not for me

Watched a couple of episodes of S2 Witcher. A clear step up in quality from the first season, but I'm a bit annoyed with all the unnecessary changes from the books. I'm not a book purist (omitting Tom Bombadil in Lotr was the right move!), but I dislike when they change things for no apparent reason.

I had corona and my 5 days of isolation recently ended. No symptoms at all, and I only took the test because there was an outbreak in my son's kindergarten and he had to get tested (so I randomly took the test too since I was at the test station in the first place). Didn't infect anyone (as far as I know), everyone I've hung out with are testing negative, including my girlfriend.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/07/kellogg-strike-workers-pay “While certainly not the result we had hoped for, we must take the necessary steps to ensure business continuity,” said Chris Hood, president of Kellogg North America. “We have an obligation to our customers and consumers to continue to provide the cereals that they know and love.” Obligations to your customers, but not to your workers. Corporate greed ftw.

A monologue is when you're speaking at people, instead of with them. It's a prolonged talk by a single speaker, hence "mono". It's not because there aren't any other people around.

I ended up not liking Midnight Mass, despite a promising start. It just tries way too hard to be meaningful, and does it in the least subtle way with the infamous monologues. The only one that worked was the first one, when two characters who clearly care for each other talk about death.

Train to Busan. Korean Zombie film. Somehow the very predictable character arc of the tropey "busy father/working father" worked for me, and helped lift the film up from being a bang average zombie flick to....slightly above average zombie flick. 6/10

I had really low expectations with Wheel of Time, and that helped. It's a mess, but I think it's the kind of show that will get better with time. The actors are doing fine, but everyone else need to step up their game. I hope they get some more talented people to do the effects, editing and costumes among other things in season 2. It looks expensive, yet somehow still really bad despite the beautiful locations. Too shiny, colorful and clean. The music is also dissapointingly dull.

I think he's regressed a bit. I loved Arrival, liked Blade Runner and found Dune to be quite dull. For me his films are very lacking in "joy", for lack of a better word. Everything is very cold and humourless. It's something he has in common with Christopher Nolan.

Kotor 2. Only Korriban and the droid planet remaining before Malachor V. My last playthrough I stopped at the droid planet - found it very boring. Anyone know if it's possible to just skip it despite having the mod installed?