review
11 conversations about this topic.
- 22 October 2023
Darkside by Tom Stoppard
Commissioned by the BBC for the 40th Anniversary of Dark Side of the Moon, I first heard this radio play around 2015 and only the once. It was pulled from Spotify not long after. Every now and then I’d look for it on streaming to no avail. So, I finally ponied up the money and ordered a copy from Discogs where I’ve had success finding some Dodo & the Dodos CDs.
- 1 July 2023
Looking into Logseq
Logseq has been appearing a lot in my Mastodon feed lately as a Personal Knowledge Management solution. Many sing its praises over Obsidian so with a slow afternoon at work yesterday I thought to take a look. My first impression is that Logseq is the offline version of Roam Research; the tool I used before migrating to Obsidian.
- 24 June 2023
The Problem Behind The Three-Body Problem
With notice that Netflix has made a series of The Three-Body Problem I’m revisiting the novel as an audiobook. Though I read it first only 18 months ago, I only have the barest memory of the story. Written by Chinese author Liu Cixin, the first two chapters of the book are heavily influenced by the Cultural Revolution and its immediate aftermath.
- 11 February 2023
Everything, Everywhere, is Too Much
Last night I watched Everything Everywhere All at Once and this morning followed up with a The Terror of Everything Everywhere All at Once, a commentary on the movie by Thomas Flight on YouTube. Listening to Thomas I realised I’m suffering the same malaise the movie puts forward. That is, overwhelm from multiple shifting fragmented and widely different cognitive responsibilities all crying for my attention.
- 3 February 2023
Stray
A game where I get to play as a cat. With 2 cats in the house, have to say it’s animated very realistically. Catinum Trophy I have the Platinum Trophy on Stray. It took an effective three play throughs. I finished the main story a little over a week ago and have spent a couple of evenings and some time today cleaning up the remainder of the trophies.
- 2 February 2023
Carrie Versus Carrie
This morning I finished Carrie the book and this afternoon I watched the 1976 movie. Book Carrie is by far the stronger of the two. She has a purpose and drive that isn’t in the movie. She also has an awareness and control of her telekinesis power not at all evident in the movie. The book interposes the Carrie timeline with observations of friends, police and scientists.
- 24 January 2023
Is Forspoken Spoken For?
This week sees the release of Forspoken, a new RPG for the PlayStation 5 and PC. My copy should arrive in a few days and I’ve been looking forward to it since I saw the trailer alongside the original PS5 release. If you read the press, Forspoken is anything mixed quality at best to the worst game of 2023! I played the demo, which apparently was full of issues that I didn’t note, and am still looking forward to the game.
- 5 January 2023
A Short Sennheiser Momentum 4 Review
For the last 4-5 years I’ve used my Sennheiser 4.50BTNC headphones every day. The BTNC stands for Bluetooth and Noise Cancelling. For Christmas 2022 I was gifted a pair of Sennheiser Momentum 4 headphones. They are two generations newer and a level above the 4.50BTNCs. Differences: better fit on the ears not as tight on the head wider soundstage clearer sound improved bass better noise cancelling insane battery life (close to 60 hours) .
- 31 December 2022
20000+ Pages Read in 2022
My 2022 reading stats are in and this year I clocked 20,871 over 46 books. Since first purchasing a Kindle some years ago my reading has increased substantially, and my annual target is 20,000 pages. My new favourite author is Brandon Sanderson. 9/46 books were authored by him, and approx. 7,000 pages. There were two series involved.
- 18 December 2022
Under the Dome
I’ve been a fan of Stephen King since I first read The Bachman Books and IT in 1988. Under the Dome is the darkest of them all. It’s not the supernatural horror but the human greed that brings about the downfall of so many people and places them in horrible situations. Many times I had to put the book down.
- 6 October 2022
Tubular Bells
Tubular Bells 2003 I listened to Tubular Bells 2003 properly for the first time on 6 October 2022. I had thought it was more of a remaster until I learned it was a complete new recording. He [Mike Oldfield] had always been uncomfortable with the original recording because he had only a few weeks to record it and the technology at the time was unable to cope with all of his requirements.