Weekly Report: December 23rd - December 29th 2024
The Week in Summary:
- On Monday, Taylor and I spent most of the day at home playing games and hanging out. Later on in the day, Avery and Alexis joined us in the evening for pizza and to watch Home Alone. I had never seen Home Alone, but I can now say that I get the appeal and I liked it a lot. The parents were irresponsible, Kevin was borderline psychopathic, and the burglars practiced resilience in the face of overwhelming adversity.
- For Christmas Eve, Taylor and I made soft ginger and chocolate peppermint cookies, played AoE IV, and had Singapore Sam's for dinner. Remarkably, given that we had kicked Avery out of our house the following night at the end of hanging out and casually forgot to invite him to play Lethal Company later that same night (when I write it out - it does sound bad), Avery decided to go overboard and gift us a Playstation 5 to fill us with deep regret and shame for excluding him from holiday affairs. The ratios for shame and gratitude are meant to be 75% shame, 25% gratitude (but truthfully we are incredibly grateful). On Christmas Day, we went to Jan and James' for the day. We had a wonderful savory breakfast (courtesy of James), opened gifts, played Dead of Winter with Rand and Dan, and had an excellent Christmas dinner.
- For Boxing Day, Avery and I spent much of the day together grabbing burgers from a new burger joint called Rosie's Burgers on 8th Street SW, stopping at Elemental Cafe, picking him up an espresso machine from Best Buy, and playing Chivalry 2. Taylor hung out with Bri and their partner over the same period. By late afternoon, we picked up Taylor and Bri, then went down to Jan and James' for a pizza dinner and to spend some quality time together (lots of political discussion ensued - as per tradition).
- The following day, Katelyn and Angela came over for snacks and taught us how to play Wingspan and Hero's Realm (sic). We have had Wingspan for qhuite some time and never got the courage to learn it, so we are really grateful that we went through the learning process as a team. The bird cards are so fucking cute.
- On the Saturday, we spent the entire day puttering around the house and playing video games. A refreshing change over the last few social days prior. It's honestly hard to consider what we did that day, other than relax, which I liked.
- On Sunday, after spending a bit of the morning cleaning and playing Isonzo, Taylor and I joined Krystal, Avery, and Alexis at Katelyn and Angela's place to play Jackbox games together. Good times with folks - it was great to hang out with friends! <3
- Over the week, Taylor and I played through the Playstation 5's Astro Playroom (a really cool introduction to the PS5 controller's haptic feedback and adaptive triggers). I also started replaying Isonzo on the PC (and now the Playstation 5) And of course, like usual, we played a bunch of Age of Empires IV and Lethal Company. And now, with a new console on my mind, I am reminded of the gift of shame. Thank you Avery!
The Week in Images:
The Week in Links:
Gen Z’s politics are hard to categorize – and a harbinger of a new political order | Ross Barkan
The great clashes to come will be less between left and right than between those inside and outside a dying establishment
Ross Barkan