Weeknotes 2025 W13: Zero interest

March 24​–​30, 2025
1300 words

Quick bits:

Shower thoughts:

Google’s AI search results feature has arrived in Germany, and I fucking hate it. It is incredibly intrusive and the information that Google’s AI returns is often misleading or wrong.

So I updated my Firefox’ chrome/userContent.css to this:

@-moz-document domain(google.com) {
  /* google ai */
  div.h7Tj7e {
    display: none;
  }

  /* people also ask */
  div.Wt5Tfe {
    display: none;
  }
}

This removes the AI box from search results page, along with the “People Also Ask” box, another feature that too is more annoying than useful.

Perhaps I should consider switching to a different search engine at this point.

I had a migraine the other day, with an aura of flashing colorful zigzag lines. This is my second time ever having a migraine, but I am fortunate to have medication for it (Naratriptan).

My migraines don’t come with a headache, fortunately. It’s just the aura — a scintillating scotoma. Somewhat of a sensitivity to light and sound, too. The experience is not pleasant, but I’m getting off easy.

As I was having the migraine, I read up on how ways to treat it (apart from medication). All of a sudden, the text I was reading made no sense anymore and I was quite worried that there was something seriously wrong going on with my brain. But it turns out I was just reading a series of medicine names, which are (to my eyes) mostly nonsense even on a totally normal day. Whew.

It all looked like elzaraborpfirxulicofnicumnan to me.

Which is exactly what Kevin said would not be wise to say three times in a row, which I obviously took as a challenge:1

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

The acting workshop I had last week was a good experience. The first day was tough and I wasn’t sure whether it was right for me. The second day was much better; still tough, but the pieces started to fall into place and I felt much more engaged and began to understand the whole process.

This acting workshop was a two-day introduction to the Meisner technique. This technique aims at building a sort of radical openness, spontaneity, presence, and authenticity. A two-day workshop far too little to start using the technique, but I’m ready to sign up for more in-depth classes now.

Acting, in general, is hard to explain in words. I can write down all I want about it, but to understand it all, you have to go through the process yourself —  or, at the very least, witness acting exercises in process. My usual approach to dealing with challenges is cerebral, but for acting, that does not quite work; acting is primarily not an intellectual activity.2

Surprisingly, I did this acting workshop almost entirely in German. I just fell into it and it worked out. It helped that we did not do any scene work, but I am nonetheless genuinely impressed with myself here, even though I still don’t feel the interest to act in German.

I felt slightly out of place because every other attendee had a career of sorts, and considerably more experience than me, but I nonetheless felt welcome and participated as an equal.

There is still the question of what I will do with these acting skills. Berlin does not seem to offer much in terms of opportunity. For now, I’m quite okay with enjoying the process of improving myself; for the time being, I can do without answering that question.

Being around people who are significantly more experienced yields an odd mixture of envy and awe.

This envy can be a little misplaced. A few of my fellow acting workshop attendees said they had no marketable skills beyond acting. Some mentioned wanting to diversify their skillset, perhaps going to university to get a “real skill” for a “real job.” The cuts to Berlin’s culture budget and the rise of “AI” brings a lot of uncertainty.

It is a good reminder that everyone has their own struggles, and my envy of them is definitely a case of the grass being greener on the other side.3

It made me reflect on my own skillset, which is fairly diverse and has marketable skills that I rarely put to use. I am fortunate and privileged, with a job in a well-paying industry that I entered purely because of personal interest and not because of monetary goals.

I have a career and a life that gives me the freedom and financial ability to pursue interests outside of my established skillset, some of which I could make money from (if I wished to go that route), and that is enviable, too.

Entertainment:

Links:

Tech links:

  1. I would have edited the audio file to trim the silence (and remove the little giggle at the end) and run it through an equalizer, but a) I did not save the original audio file and would rather not edit the lossily compressed M4A file, and b) I’m too lazy to spend more time on this nonsense. ↩︎

  2. Intellect is certainly still useful and necessary for acting, but mostly — or perhaps only — in the preparatory stages of exploring a role and performing the prerequisite research. ↩︎

  3. The grass sometimes genuinely is greener on the other side. Often, the things we don’t have look better than the things we do, but sometimes that is because they genuinely are better. The “grass is greener” argument shouldn’t lead to complacency or inertia, but to research and introspection — and perhaps to change, too. ↩︎

  4. The Substance, written and directed by Coralie Fargeat (Working Title Films, A Good Story, Blacksmith, 2024). ↩︎

  5. Factorio (Wube Software, 2020), published by Wube Software. ↩︎

  6. Severance, directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle, written by Dan Erickson (Fifth Season, Red Hour Films, 2022). ↩︎

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