moving
November has been a busy month! I keep trying to find time to write a post but I'm either tired or stressed or don't really have a clean update to post. Mostly because we are moving to Canada on the 1st December! It's finally happening! The last month or so has been a haze of quitting jobs, sorting visas, leaving parties, seeing people, etc. I feel pretty tired (although that might just be a small hangover from last night).
I don't think it helps that it doesn't really feel like I've had a routine recently, and I don't think that will change for a while. And with only a week and a half left, it feels like it's going to be stressful getting everything ready. Really though, the only big things left are
- PCR tests for flying
- Packing
- Deciding what to ship/send and sending it
There are a few other small things (booking a taxi from Vancouver to our new flat, uploading details into ArriveCAN, and I'm sure other things I've forgotten), but given we're off work I don't think it will be too bad.
The other big thing, of course, has been seeing people before we go. Most people came to our leaving do, but there's still a few people to catch before we leave.
Moving halfway across the world takes a lot of effort, who'd have thought?!
I went to visit my parents last week as well, which was very enjoyable. It was a bit sad they were working, but it was nice to spend time with them nonetheless. It is quite sad to be moving away from friends and family. I knew I was going to miss people but I think it's going to be a bit worse than I thought...
In other less exciting news, we finally saw the new Bond (enjoyable) and I've been enjoying Bloc Party's Silent Alarm. I'd like to write more about both, but I'm just not feeling particularly up to it at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to write about exciting Canada things soon though!
tags:
life,
canada
permalink | posted by nathan on Sunday, the 21th of November, 2021, during the most productive hours of the day
dune
For the first time in almost two years, we went to see a film in the cinema! We had planned to see The French Dispatch, but it wasn't showing at the cinema we were going to. We also wanted to see the new Bond, but Beth hasn't seen all of the previous ones, and while probably not completely necessary, is something we want to finish anyway.
So we saw Dune instead. I really enjoyed it! The world seems a lot more interesting than many other sci-fi/fantasy worlds, with a fair amount of different ideas. It also doesn't try and justify its own internal logic too much; things are just the way they are, and that's that. I enjoyed the story as well - it twists and turns and travels to exciting places. My only worry is that Paul might get a bit too powerful and plot-armour-y, but we'll see.
I'm excited for the next movie - I might even give the book a try again.
tags:
movies
permalink | posted by nathan on Sunday, the 31th of October, 2021, in an early evening lull
some music i've been enjoying
Do I have the music taste of a teen girl? Quite possibly.
taylor swift - lover & folklore
I missed these albums when they were originally released. 1989 is really a soundtrack to my Uni years, but Reputation didn't really jive with me. So when Lover came out, I think I missed it, or just assumed it wouldn't be for me.
I also don't think I'd been listening to a huge amount of music at that time. I was either cycling to work or listening to podcasts or comedy on the tube. And obviously the pandemic happened and I don't think I really thought about listening to new music with everything that was going on.
But recently, we've been driving a lot more now we're living at Beth's parents, which gives a lot more time to listen to music. My trip to Dartmoor was also the first time I'd spent time in person with friends for ages, and so I ended up listening to other music as well, and kind of realised what I'd been missing.
So on a trip to Herefordshire to look at some wedding venues, we listened to Lover.
It's a very easy album to listen to. Catchy songs, easy to connect to, and not as much cheesy "edge" (yeah wow Taylor Swift so edgy lol) as Reputation.
I've also listened to folklore a few times since then. I don't think it's as good as Lover, but maybe that's because it's got a bit more of a melancholy tone. I still need to listen to evermore as well, and hopefully it's a good end to what feels like a trilogy of albums.
lorde - melodrama
I wish I'd found this album sooner. It came out 4 years ago, and I think really speaks to my unfortunate personality trait of being highly suspicious of anything new in media.
Melodrama strikes me as being full of raw emotion. A lot of the sounds and tracks are quite jarring and have some uncomfortable moments, but it just seems to add to the variety and interest.
It took a few listenings to really get into it, but I don't think there's a bad track on the album. Even some of the weirder tracks like "Hard Feelings/Loveless" are somehow still catchy.
tags:
music
permalink | posted by nathan on Sunday, the 31th of October, 2021, in an early evening lull
ld results and life
Well, I got first place in humour for Strong and Stable.
I'll be honest, I don't really know what to think! Getting a high position in an LD has always kind of been an ambition, but I never thought it would happen like this! Strong and Stable was made to be a silly joke, and apparently it worked. Not too bad for a day and a halves work!
There's also a bunch of posts I've been meaning to write. September was super busy and as I haven't really had a chance to write anything there's lots that has been rattling around my head. I feel like I need to get some of it out. A general update about September, some music "reviews", a Strong and Stable post mortem... Plus I've been working on the Game Boy Zero, Canada bits have been moving a bit too, and we're still going through boxes and tidying before moving... Writing it like this makes me realise that there is quite a lot going on.
tags:
life,
ludum-dare
permalink | posted by nathan on Friday, the 22th of October, 2021, when he should have been getting ready for bed
youtube and maths
https://youtu.be/-RdOwhmqP5s
The above is a great 3Blue1Brown video about "Newton's Fractal". It has some really beautiful visualisations and some mind bending maths.
I had a conversation at work today about Simplicial Complexes, and both it and the above video really made me think about Maths and my love/hate relationship with it. I've also been watching Vihart's old videos as well.
Maybe I should spend some time thinking about Maths.
tags:
self,
maths
permalink | posted by nathan on Tuesday, the 12th of October, 2021, when he should have been getting ready for bed