Vi's Weekly Wonders #3
#3 of Vi's Weekly Wonders
Your weekly dose of living the good, cultured, entertained and enthralled life! Or just overanalyzing how I spent my week.
My jolly collection of weekly enjoyments:
Linux Paradoxes
More on my Linux Journey this week falling into a paradox. Because I actually enjoy using my PC, I want to use it to do more stuff. But some of that is difficult since most of that stuff is made for Windows. Case in point, I still haven't managed to get Space Marine 2 to start, despite trying 3 different (and extensive) workarounds. But if I was on Windows I would have never finished Space Marine 1, so running Space Marine 2 wuldn't have been a problem - since I simply wouldn't have attempted it. Catch that 22.
Video Games & Setups
I reached a fully dark cavern in Metal Gear 3 Snake Eater and since I no longer had the thermal goggles which I picked up and were supposed to be returned to me - I gave the game a rest. I'm playing it on PS3 and it's in the other town I live in. My gaming life is distributed, with a gaming laptop that can run modern titles here, a PS3 with a bunch of games I haven't finished there. Pretty soon I'll add an emulation machine there as well, since the PC is just standing there awaiting. Plus I have a few retro handhelds and plan on expanding soon, even if I rarely play them. I should get a something akin to a Steam Deck for travel. All in due time.
Since I spend most of this week with the gaming laptop, I finished Space Marine and was glad to jump into Space Marine 2 - knowing nothing about it. So far, no dice. It is quite amazing how some games just start without a single hitch, others need to be tweaked and others just refuse for unclear reasons. The inconsistency did get to me so I gave up for the time being and started playing Watch Dogs 2 again. I loved it the first time around, open world crime games (GTA likes) are my favorite video game genre and this one's a blast.
I played almost none of Burnout 2 this week surprisingly enough, I suppose I'm fading on it a bit - having played it too much for the last two. But I did open Atari 50 up, a game I started last winter and mostly ignored for the summer. Back then I played the heck out of Lunar Lander by myself and the Quadratank Re-imagine and Warlods in local multiplayer. I still have a bunch of arcade games to try, but i switched to the 2600. I do find a lot of charm in games this simple, just the essence of play. Plus I finally found out why games regularly change color - burn in was a thing for CRT's as well. This game fit perfectly with The Game Console book.
90min Films
Starting with more Wes Anderson, I watched The Darjeeling Limited. My family relations are similar to the movie and I enjoyed their dynamic, butI don't find the movie all too memorable. It's basically family drama abroad - so it's most of my childhood memories.
After that I had a blast putting on >90min movies just before dozing off this week. I re-watched and re-loved Rope, a movie that combines 3 of my favorite thing - morbidness, intellectualization and public ideological mishaps. The ending constantly disappoints me, but everything else is spectacular.
Watched Tangerine for the first time and realized that I love Sean Baker's ouvre despite just learning his name. Both Anora & Red Rocket are among my favorite movies and Tangerine does fit right in. It's a movie prostitutes yelling and the faded glamour of the American fairytale. Absolutely loved it.
Hero Worship Lit
Becoming Steve took up most of my reading time. I love learning more and more about the man, I just find his particular mix of quirks, traits, thoughts and faults infatuating. I've almost finished it.
On my unfortunate journey, I did start reading David Bowie the Last Interview and found it interesting. I finally saw a qoute about his thoughts on nazism - his views were a bit questionable in the 70's. His attitude comes off as politely negative and a bit in awe of what they did. I read his first ever interview, the infamous long hair boys advocacy prank and it was fun. Plus Bowie and William Burroughs interviewing each other. Two people who don't know much about the other, but are perfectly willing to speak about themselves in front of a reporter.
Addictions & Solutions
I have a persistent desire to fight my addictions, even if it constantly seems like I'm standing against a sea of troubles. But I must fight on. I switched to an my old Nokia KaiOS phone and learned, or re-learned that KaiOS is dead. The app store is shut off, Whatsapp unsupported and no longer functional. The reason I chose this phone was to have a non smartphone backup I can turn to, but which can hotspot me internet at a pinch. This phone was almost perfect for all of that, except for one fatal flaw. The battery sucks.
We remember feature phones as holding up like bricks, taking constant physical damage and rarely needing a charge. This thing needed to be charged almost every night, rarely extending to two days - mostly if you limit it to 3G. Happy to report it still works, KaiOS dying has zero impact on my utility of the phone. There is a simple way to sideload apps apparently and I just might try it out of curiosity.
Conclusion
It's been a strange weak but I have a lot of changes planned for the next one. I need to get back to taking my physisical fitness seriously, lots of work to do and I thought of a new way to organize my notes and files. Something much more ADHD friendly.
Stay tuned and thank you for reading.