2025-11-28 03:47:05
"Greenwitch", the third part of Susan Cooper's beloved "The Dark is Rising" Sequence – marking the halfway point – sees us back on the Cornish coast with our intrepid city mice; Simon, Jane, and Barney, as they embark on another jolly hockeysticks cucumber sandwiches rip-roaring adventure.
What Cooper has done beautifully here is weave the two worlds together in a coherent way. Yes, it's very "Famous Five" but the addition of Will Stanton immediately darkens the tone in a way "Over Sea, Under Stone" just wasn't.
The juxtaposition of the sunny Cornish coast, the demented Dark messenger, the eternal optimism of the children, the pagan-adjacent moonlit hilltop ceremony, bright Gypsy caravans, and eerie ghost ships all work to blend the previous two novels into a coherent work.
The other standout of this book is how feminine it feels. Previously, women in the Sequence were evil or just kind of there. The focus here is on the women. Partly because Jane has a more important role but also the Greenwitch herself and the Lady Tethys. Magic through art, salvation through selflessness.
There are some nice learnings here — not everything can or should be solved with might and bluster. Sometimes strength isn't muscular, it's empathy, and power is simply caring.
2025-11-25 22:36:36
A very silly film about a pampered pet cat and a gruff stray dog team up to save the world from an army of evil robots.
Everything is pretty cliched here; the hero is an "I don't need nobody" kind of rugged individualist who learns the power of friendship…or something.
The world of cinema has gone so hard on the "enemies to lovers" trope I was genuinely concerned for most of the film that the dog and cat would somehow become a couple.
The strangest flex of the whole film comes about two thirds of the way through when a decommissioned robot cop explains to the army of assassin robots that they have more in common with the people they're trying to kill than the ruling classes whose orders they are following. A strong message of class solidarity in the midst of all this daftness.
Don't worry, though, as a bench-pressing poodle, skateboarding pig, and comedically wall-eyed pug stop the film from being in any way serious.
A couple of twists towards the end, one I saw coming but one I did not.
Not bad.
2025-11-25 19:02:45
There's an old episode of "South Park" ("Smug Alert", Season 10, 2006) where Gerald Broflovski is driving a Toyota Prius and loving the smell of his own farts.
That is how I feel about a lot of people these days showing off their "AI" creations.
Look what I made!
they exclaim with pride, ignoring the fact they didn't make anything. The nearest analogy is they adequately explained what they wanted to a colleague who adequately produced it.
What did you make? Over what do you claim ownership? Surely not the output — a collage of Gutenberg Press, Wikipedia, and a handful of other training materials.
All you can really claim credit for is the prompt; your adequate explanation.
Possibly the most basic skill in your arsenal as an employee.
2025-11-25 07:02:05
With the greatest respect to Hollie from whom I have nicked adapted this rating system.
| Ranking | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 🎄🎄🎄🎄🌟 | •chef's kiss• 11/10 no notes |
| 🎄🎄🎄🎄 | Hits all notes of the formula but in an enjoyable way |
| 🎄🎄🎄 | Perfectly serviceable Christmas film |
| 🎄🎄 | Adequate attempt but probably too cute or confusing |
| 🎄 | “You make Miette sit through this film? You make her watch the whole thing?! oh! oh! Jail for director! Jail for director for one thousand years!” |
2025-11-24 18:48:17
Full of the magic of Christmas, this musical tale of family reunion, betrayal, and toymaking feels like Disney made Dinsdale's The Toymakers.
Gentle steampunk magical toys include a narcissistic matador and a wooden robot that is not Wall-E.
Forrest Whittaker sings.
2025-11-24 05:30:26
This time last year, my garden was under 6 inches of snow. This year the "cold snap" has barely resulted in ground frost.
I remembered an old laptop in a box so I tried setting up a local shared server. Now I have a nice little system involving a mounted cloud drive, a cron job, samba, and Plex. It means I can save content to the cloud drive from literally anywhere and, within the hour, it's available on various devices on my local network and Plex on the TVs. All for free.
I didn't really listen to any new music this week but former Crystal Castles frontwoman, Alice Glass, gifted us with "Mercy Kill" — icy, robotic, fucked up glitch. Amazing.
All effort this week has been towards preparation for a workshop early next week. Nothing I can really talk about in detail. We have been working towards a framework to produce rapid prototypes. I've been quite involved in a new capacity that's been challenging but rewarding. I'm really looking forward to executing on the day and, fingers crossed, absolutely bossing it!
I have something he will never have — enough
Joseph Heller, to Kurt Vonnegut at a party