Weeknotes 2026 W31: Speaking of

Quick bits

• I met up with fellow weeknoter Coffee for a cup of Tom. Oops! Fellow weeknoter Tom for a cup of coffee. Clearly lacking coffee this morning.

  It was excellent conversation with excellent coffee.

• Speaking of coffee: I’ve held off on buying fancy coffee beans because one gets used to having good coffee and then every other coffee just tastes terrible. The plan is to vorbeugen my hedonistic adaptation. How do you say vorbeugen in English? Again: Clear lack of coffee this morning.

• My mind runs faster than my mouth sometimes. This week’s top accidental abbreviation: “National Rail” became “Nail.”

• Speaking of abbreviations: “letting agency” is short for “bloodletting agency.”

• The LD₅₀ of menthol is as low as 50mg/kg. It never occurred to me that menthol has an LD₅₀. It never occurred to me that everything has an LD₅₀ — even water! Everything can kill you! What a cheery thought.

  Fun fact: Between the LD₅₀ of menthol and caffeine lies the LD₅₀ of… uranium, of all things.

• Speaking of caffeine: My purchase of a bottle of iced coffee was blocked at WHSmith. A shopkeeper had to come and unlock the terminal. Caffeine is a restricted substance now, and requires an age (16+) check. Glad I don’t look that young.

• I’ve decided to start pronouncing “QA” (quality assurance) as the Arabic letter qāf (ق). We shall see how long it takes for others to catch on.

• Speaking of Arabic: YouTube subtitles have been defaulting to Arabic for a while now, and no matter what I do, the language always comes back to Arabic.

• A colleague said to me “Got distracted talking about bread with you.” I’ll take that as a compliment.

• Speaking of work and compliments: my performance review came in positive. Excellent.

Shower thoughts

• I will never say when I buy Weck jars. But there will be signs, right here in these wecknotes.

• The escalators have signs that say “stand on the right,” but that’s a bit ambiguous, isn’t it? It means that if you want to do any standing, you’re kindly requested to do it on the right (not on the left). But it could also mean that if you find yourself on the right, then you have to do some standing (and not walking). That would mean it is allowed to stand on the left. English is a silly ambiguous language.

• Speaking of pedantry: I used to be reachable at pedanticteam@soundcloud.com. But who at my current employer do I need to convince to give me a similar vanity email address?

Viewings

I did a few viewings for flats this week, but so far nothing stuck out.

One flat was full of mould. An utter deal breaker.

One was in the middle of nowhere. When I asked the property agent what the area was like, the answer was “there is a Sainsbury’s Local” — not quite meeting the bar here.

Many of the viewings got canceled. Flats disappear incredibly quickly, sometimes in less than 24 hours.

It’s tough to find a nice flat in London. But I’m not under time pressure, even if my living situation is distinctly less than ideal. It is a constant trade-off between monthly cost, living in a nice area, and having enough space.

Also, it’s tough to find flats that are not furnished. I’ve got my own furniture! I want my own furniture!

And space in particular is important. Downsizing is not something I’m quite prepared to do just yet. I’ve even been thinking about getting more furniture: an old-school bureau would be lovely to have for my writing work (with physical paper and fountain pens).

Entertainment

• I got back into Fallen London¹¹1 Fallen London (Failbetter Games, 2009), published by Failbetter Games.  and even started paying for the subscription. I am making my name (scrawled in blood).

• Carrie²²2 Carrie, directed by Brian De Palma, written by Stephen King and Lawrence D. Cohen (Red Bank Films, 1976).  is so cheesy. A classic, but I’m afraid I did not nearly enjoy it as much as I had hoped. Then again, it’s fifty years old.

Links

• Graphics Don't Matter Anymore (Command B)

• Why did a $154 billion CEO just endorse stripping most Americans of voting rights — and taking us back to the 19th century? (Nick Lichtenberg for Fortune): Tobias Lütke is bad news.

• Blogging Can Just Be Stating The Obvious (Jim Nielsen): Yep.

• I Visited Europe's Highest Football Ground (And Predictably, The Views Are Stunning) (The Tim Traveler)

• The Craziest Train I've Ever Ridden. (What On Earth Is This?): Staircase of doom.

• BMW Spider-Man in-car advertising: Dystopian.

Tech links:

• Bear now supports Mermaid diagrams: Neat! I use Bear daily and this is a good addition to have.

• Datatype — variable font that turns text into charts (Frank Tisellano): I need to find a use for this!

• AI Firms Are Buying up Old Books, Then Scanning and Destroying Them (Tom Midlane for Novara Media): Sickening.