There’s a buzz in London’s rarefied air this week, and it isn’t the Notting Hill Carnival: Swifties from all over are in town to see the tail-end of the Eras tour. The trains are not ready, and on Monday evening they give out.
In sharp contrast, the office feels quiet - putting into perspective my deep-dive into Google Drive’s permissions and API.
Drive API? Not a fan. The documentation is riddled with random jargon, implied behaviours and inconsistencies. I learn a lot about things that even Google just aren’t able to do, and CR confirms that fixing or adding a few of them are “on their roadmap... eventually”. And that some things aren’t.
I hardly sleep on Tuesday night for reasons I never fully work out, but it seems like there’s a correlation with the pollen forecast? Wednesday goes OK but I feel fragile. But I give up on spot plans to travel at the weekend.
Feeling the telltale signs of seasonal allergies, I resume Fexofenadine.
Over the week I fiddle with a research project, where I attempt to model matches in a popular e-sport on a social graph to identify latent trends. The form of the data, the vast number of players and the low rate-limits of official APIs lead to what I’ll generously call: “A disproportionate return on investment of my time”. But I do now have a few cool graphs. And soon it will work.
A few small-ish things that people do (and don’t do) really get to me, enough to prompt reflection that I here am writing about doing, but will (probably) never share.
Katzenjammers for dinner one evening with MS. The pairing of a Hofbräu Weissbier and a schnitzel heavy on the salad reminds me that beer can taste good, a fact that will become more relevant later.
Hi, it’s later now. Over the week, I had a few of the usual names you see on the taps. Learned that Local Pub™ staff think I’m a Camden Hells regular. But: I really don’t enjoy these, it’s the company that keeps me locked in. I suspect I’m not alone - because - who really enjoys IPAs? I’m going to try harder to stick to the complex-for-London order of a whiskey-soda.
Friday evening hits, and for lack of the previously-cancelled plan to travel to Cordoba, I head to Euston and pick up tickets to Birmingham. The journey is really smooth. We arrive early. It’s late out, so I order a cab, and I’m really impressed? New car smell. The doors slides open welcomingly on their own. The seats are separated and have arm-rests. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. We head out of the “drop-n-go” zone, and immediately drive past a surprisingly agile shirtless man fighting kids clad in hoodies. There we go.
Picked up a few of my old faves while in town; Parisian from Anderson & Hill and a three-roast rice (三寶飯?) from Peach Garden. The latter is delicious and is a LOT of food, but it’s pricier it once was. Hit up Royal Watan on Sunday for an “Alex special”.
On the train down I watched Confess, Fletch (2024) which featured a solid Hamm/Slattery dynamic whilst also making me feel clever, so it gets an absolutely solid 3.5/5.
There’s heaps of emergent symmetry this week relative to the same time last year.
We watched the first half of the new season of Emily in Paris... What a strange point to cut-off the series? Also that hat at the masquerade ball had major Scary Movie 3 vibes.
On top of making a “/now/“ page and a blogroll, I’m toying with making a page that is just a list of places and things I really like. Is this is a bad idea?
