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

ld49 - strong and stable

It was LD49 last weekend! I offered to help Tom move on Saturday, so I didn't have a huge amount of time to make anything. Sadly all of the friends were I usually enter with were busy this weekend as well, so I entered the Compo for the first time in years!

The theme was "Unstable", and the only thing I could think when trying to come up with a game idea was Theresa May and "Strong and Stable". So, of course, that's how the game turned out!

I don't think a lot of people who have played the game have got the jokes, but that's okay. I'm pretty happy with what I made!

The compo is hard! Lots less time and lots more decisions to make on your own as well. Harder to keep motivated, harder to come up with good ideas... I can see why more games are made for the Jam!

Link to the game!

tags: life, ludum-dare, game-jam, games

permalink | posted by nathan on Thursday, the 7th of October, 2021, during the productive hours of the afternoon

russian gp

I am so gutted for Norris. Big learning opportunity though for both him and McLaren. What a super duper race. This year has been so good.

tags: f1, sport

permalink | posted by nathan on Sunday, the 26th of September, 2021, when he should have been getting ready for bed