Weeknotes 2026 W42: Sixth year

Welcome to my sixth year of doing week­notes. What a journey. My week­notes sure have changed since my very first week­notes entry.

Quick bits

• For acting class, I had to write a three-minute piece about myself. One could assume that this would be easy, given the vast amount of writing I have done on this web site. Alas, I struggled with it so much! I did not even finish it, but had to present it anyway, improvising the ending. It wasn’t badly received, at least. In a few weeks’ time, we have to present it again to class (using everything we learnt), but I’m planning to have something else written by then.

• I saw a cat on the street, so I kneeled down and said pspsps and it lifted its tail, meowed and came over to me and affectionate bonked its head into my leg. It was the ideal street-side cat encounter.

• This week, I learned to play minesweeper. It’s a fun game! I know I know, I’m late with it — it’s already the year 2006, after all, but let me have fun!

• Someone bumped into my right nipple while I was exiting the Tube. It was sore for hours. What a very specific and very small area to be bumped into.

• I found a road named “Major Road.” It is comically small.

• The shark teeth in the TfL advertising is different from the shark teeth used in real life. Is this just an accident… or intentional?

Shower thoughts

• If I were making a horror film, I would frame my shots so that “PHARMACY” is cut off by a street sign to say just “HARMACY,” and so that the sign “FRESH ORGANIC PRODUCE” is cut off to just “FRESH ORGAN.” Or would that be too cheesy?

This week’s projects

• Taking a 25-week acting foundations course
• Reading, ridiculously slowly, Respect for Acting¹¹1 Uta Hagen, Respect for Acting: Expanded Version (John Wiley & Sons, 2023). 
• Preparing, slowly, a talk on the goal pattern
• Finding a better place to live
• Prototyping, slowly, the next iteration of ddenv
• Putting together, slowly, a curriculum for my acting course

It’s all going very slowly. Sooo slooow.

What does redemption look like?

Last week, I linked to Jessie Gender’s video essay Jacob Geller, Cornell & The Price of Men's Future. Since last week, I’ve removed all the links to Jacob Geller’s work from my week­notes. Not that I don’t like Geller’s video essays — quite the contrary — but it does not feel appropriate to keep linking to them.

I share Jessie Earl’s position for the most part. But I’m trying to keep as much of an open mind as I can. The situation is developing and I will re-evaluate as new information drops.

On the one hand, I do not like the lack of proper and honest communication from Geller. On the other hand, I do not like how this information seemingly was dug up and leaked by some third party for the purpose of hurting him. That is how I am perceiving it at the moment, at least. It is a mess.

I believe people can and do change. Being open about our mistakes is a start, and I’m putting my money where my mouth is and creating a list of my regrets. What comes beyond that, though?

Teeth

For a long time, I had the to-do item to get a dental check-up. I kept pushing it off until earlier this week, when a filling came loose and I felt that my teeth were more sensitive. So I finally made that appointment.

It turns out I lost two fillings and need a complex filling on a third tooth. Getting all that fixed sets me back about a thousand pounds, of which insurance pays maybe 30%. Oof. But at least I’ll be able to get the high-quality fillings this time, which should last more than just a few years.

Entertainment

• I’m on the trail of the Soothsayer in Kathy Rain 2.²²2 Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer (Clifftop Games / Raw Fury, 2025).  They won’t be able to hide from me much longer.

Links

• Ukraine did not Stop the Russian Bots (Rebecca Watson (Skepchick)): I didn’t pay too much attention to it, but have to admit I fell for it, too.

• DrFraserGovil/rpgtex: A LaTeX package for typesetting RPG documents: I don’t need this, but I suppose it’s nice to have.