Notes from April 2026
2026-04-01
It's called plan A and plan B because the first one is the "anticipated" one, whereas the other one is "backup."
Yes, I just made that up. I regret nothing.
My secret to hiding my sources is hiding the knowledge in the first place. If they don't know that you know, then there is no one to know it from.
2026-04-02
A good post is wasted on LinkedIn; post it somewhere else, where it matters.
On paper books
Now I'm back to reading paper books, something I thought would never happen again, but I used to be an avid ebook reader; and, apart from books, I would also send myself articles. I read a lot of them, and they were often long, which would create a sturdy backlog, and as a result, I would read them with a slight delay. This led to a curious observation: a lot of stuff would lose its freshness quickly; affairs would blow over or escalate.
2026-04-03
Peaky Blinders (Season 6)
It took me 4 years to finally get to the final season of "Peaky Blinders." I forgot a lot, so I had to figure things out as we went, but I managed in the end. Not sure if the show changed or I forgot, but there were many scenes with only 2 actors at a time, which gave it a theatrical impression; which I liked very much. Other than that, it's good ol' Peaky Blinders. As always, excellent choice of music, though I don't know if it's still PJ Harvey's work.
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man
"Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man," 2026, is a movie set in the same universe as the show; and with action set 6 years later, it acts as a distant finale. Some characters are gone by now, the rest moved on. I liked the plot with Nazis intending to flood Great Britain with counterfeit money, but generally, this movie was unnecessary and doesn't really contribute much. That being said, Barry Keoghan as Duke Shelby was a nice addition to the crew. And excellent music, well composed into the scenes.
The movie follows in steps of "Luther," which was also taken over by Netflix and had a movie afterwards. Though, "Luther: The Fallen Sun" looked like open for continuation, which I just confirmed, whereas for Peaky Blinders, it's probably the end of the road.
One day later...
Apparently not. Alas, there will be another actor to play Duke Shelby.
Orlando
And now, for something completely weirder -- "Orlando" (1992), an adaptation of Virginia Woolf's book. A story of a man who lives for 400 years and turns into a woman at some point. Due to his/her age, they meet many historical people on the way. I liked the scenes in the Middle East, which were shot in Azerbaijan; there is something appealing about their raw architecture. The movie was getting weirder with each minute, and I liked that, not being able to guess where it's heading.
Continuing from elsewhere...
I was just looking for sources for links on my page, and I learned that both books miss their Wikipedia's articles. And it even worse for Richard Bowes, because, unlike Elizabeth Hand, he himself doesn't even have an article there. Looks like Polish book stores took care of my education in obscure novels.
2026-04-04
Naked Gun
"The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" which I always thought to be titled simply "Naked Gun," is a 1988's comedy about Frank Drebin, a goofy policeman and his goofiest adventures. It might be known more for its most recent new movie. I've seen "Naked Gun" many times before, so I was curious how it holds, and -- similarly to "Hot Shots!" -- it's not as funny as it used to be, though funnier than "Hot Shots!" I like how everything funny is overdone at least twice.
The Void
"The Void" is a cosmic horror from 2016. The plot follows a small-town sheriff who finds a beaten-up man emerging from the forest; he then takes the man to a hospital, where things begin to get weirder and weirder. It was the last cosmic horror that I had on my watchlist, though I am not sure if it's so cosmic. Visually well thought out, but there was something off all the time. I think I have to agree with the "paper-thin plot" criticism that some reviewers brought up.
I had problems with guessing what could be happening next, despite the movie being a pretty standard horror, because it doesn't explain almost anything. On paper, it should be good, the "show, not tell" principle, but practically, it's closer to a patchwork of various horror tropes and concepts put together; and while this, on the other hand, makes it sound bad, the creators actually pulled that part off quite nicely. A really mixed beast, this one.
Spoilers: I was lost as to who were the two guys from the beginning, but we put it together with my wife afterwards. Then, it's not really explained who the cultist in white robes are, as they're more of decoration. What cosmic powers the doctor serves is completely not named, which is probably a good thing, because those explanations are usually lame, anyway. So, after the movie, it all makes sense, more or less, but not when you're watching it.
Further spoilers: The monster initially reminded me the alien from "The Hidden," but it quickly evolves into this pile of organs, which brought back fond memories of the final segment of "The Substance," but later monsters looked more like coming from Clive Barker, and I don't mean as much "Hellraiser" as rather the Tortured Souls toyline. So, then, throw the hospital sequence from "The Jacob's Ladder" into the mix. Some said it's in David Cronenberg style, but to me, it feels accidental.
The big bad spoiler: The final form of the doctor, who turns out to be the mastermind behind the whole thing, looks exactly like Vecna from "Stranger Things," season 4, and even has the same voice, which made us suspect that maybe there was an inspiration here.
And then that pyramid at the end, what the hell was that? Perhaps, feeling lost is the part that makes it a cosmic horror.
To summarise, it's a position rather for horror buffs only, as it recycles various elements so well that you don't really think how minimal the plot is. Then, it's well done horror, with practical special effects, and some sort of dread looming over everything. The hospital setting made me think mostly of "Halloween II" (1981). There was potential for more, but we can't always have nice things.
World Pole Stone Dusk
I just bought "World Pole Stone Dusk," and played it for a while. Cool, small game with classic, hence unforgiving, mechanics but modern controls, so it's the best of two worlds. It's visually impressive, using a palette of three colours only (at a time) to draw the world. It's very pixelated, which leaves a lot of room for imagination. So, yeah. You should check it, too.
2026-04-05
Why are we discussing going back to the Moon and building a base there with a serious face, I do not know. Probably, something related to the news cycle.
Off with these socks! The warmth is here.
One thing that karaoke showed me, and which I did not realise from just listening songs, is that there is a lot of repetition. Many times, we would skip the end of the song if it were, like, two lines repeating over and over and over again. Therefore, I am glad I am not a singer. Even chorus might be a too much sometimes. I will value chorusless songs more from now on.
2026-04-06
I have an idea for a Pico-8 game, I guess somewhat inspired by Cronenberg's "Scanners." And of course, Game of Life; I could repurpose one of my JS implementations.
"Ecology is the science of understanding consequences." (Frank Herbert, in an interview)
I tried ruinning "Junk Runner 64," but the most popular emulator simply gave me a black screen, and another one started, but te game was glitchy, and I couldn't actually play; which is a shame because it looked promising. I was thinking, though, that I could check some newly made games at some point. Probably never, given my schedule for other things.
2026-04-07
Death foreshadowing
I had a dream the other day. I was in a street outside my house, in the dead of the night. I was standing in the middle of a crossroad when I saw someone approaching me on the pavement. The clothes were pitch black, although I could see the fringes. In the dream, I realised it was Death, and I started strafe-circling it slowly when the feeling of dread started overwhelming me. Then suddenly I woke up, feeling scared, to the point that I started laughing.
I've been walking my dog at late times recently, due to his new medicine, which makes him drink a lot, so I've seen the street in this lighting a lot in the last couple of days.
I gotta hand it to Notion: they managed to create working with content pretty well, UX wise. And it copy-pastes as Markdown, too; which I mentioned earlier.
Journals can be thrown out afterwards, but journaling is indispensable.
(Probably thrown out, because they might be useful a couple of decades down the line, to check some obscure details or timelines. But self-discovery wise, they had served their purpose by then.)
2026-04-08
My laptop ran out of energy, and I lost all my opened tabs. Zen Browser doesn't restore them. A clean slate is what we call it.
6 minutes later...
Oh no, wait. It was on another monitor. 😅 We good.
But I came here to write something else.
I like those Asian coins with square holes in the middle. There is something appealing in this design to me.
There is a new game on LinkedIn. This could be an interesting idea for Pico-8 game set. Maybe apart from mini sudoku, that's not original.
And speaking of games, I had a sudden vision of 16-bit-era side-scrolling beat 'em up based on "Too Old To Die Young." It would have two selectable characters (Martin and Jesus), with two distinct timelines. I think Refn's aesthetics and sound could translate well to this format.
As kids, we thought the adults run the show, but as we became adults ourselves, we noticed that this was a very romantic idea. I believe it was Orwell who said that the true terror is realising one day that your school mates are running the country; or something to that meaning.
2026-04-09
I've been exploring Pico-8 games recently, and it reminded me of when I was a 10-year old, and I would load different Commodore 64 games from tapes. Oftentimes, you'd only have a title and nothing more, so you would see what the game was only upon loading it. And those games -- Pico's and Commodore's -- share some similarities. For now, I'm collecting games for later, but having an unexpected nostalgia trip.
Tetris
When I was a kid, I had this game: it was a handheld designed specifically to play Tetris and nothing more. I spend countless hours with it. Over time, the buttons would become less responsive, so I would open it and clean it with alcohol. A while ago, I found a similar device in Ale Hop and played a bit, but the controls were bad. But! I got a taste for good old Tetris. This week, it struck me that I could play the original GameBoy Tetris on my R36S clone. Two hours out of life.
One note about "Tetris and nothing more." There was an expanded device, with four direction buttons (here, three) and two action buttons (here one, ROTATE). I had it once in my hands, and it had two more types of the games: boxing and tanks, both still build with Tetris squares. However, I never managed to find it myself anywhere. And so, for most of the people, the experience was Tetris only.
And another note about Tetrises. At first, I played the Nintendo version, then GameBoy's, and to my surprise, GameBoy had nailed the controls (rotate left/right and you speed up falling of the pieces), whereas the Nintendo version had rotating only in one direction and the piece could be dropped immediately only. What the hell?!
But also, the GB version resembles Brick Game above more, due to being black and white (because green tint came from the GB's screen itself, not games).
So, yeah.
And finally, if you're into nostalgic Tetrises (Tetres?), I found this Pico-8 version that renders a GameBoy and you play game inside the game. Crazy, in the best possible meaning!
2026-04-10
I checked GameBoy Advance games today, and noticed a lot of titles based on movies. For instance, I had no idea there was "Batman Begins." I suspect a lot of cash grabs there, but something out there might be just decent enough to try it. Someone must have written an article with the top 10 games worth a while. But -- that's a story for another day; or year, hard to say, with everything taking so much time.
Well, there were only top 25 and top 50. Anyway, I'm taking a note of "Golden Sun" for later.
How 'bout obliterating a company website because I cancelled a subscription? 😅 #FreakyFriday
2026-04-11
Pico-8 on hardware
At long last, I got Pico-8 working on my R36S clone, and it looks really slick. Those small screens were born to handle this pixel art.
Some games don't load, though, and it's hard to say where's the fault: is it the knock-off device, or maybe Rocknix, or perhaps some blameless lack of compatibility?
Also, I didn't get "Poom" to run, and I paid money for it. Also failed on Ubuntu, because of a missing library. I'll try on Windows; they're dropping that AI nonsense, so I'll stay with it. I waited the fad over. Anyway, it's late.
But Tetris is gonna be my favourite.
After reading this article: "Process knowledge," I realised that I simply respect the process; which is something that detached from reality tech bros and various CEOs want to replace, for simply not understanding what purpose it serves.
The story resonated with me even more, because back in 2006, I worked one day as a dishwasher, and I totally blew it and almost brought the restaurant to a halt. Which is also a little funny.
I wrote my first routine in Pico-8, for a game I conceived in a spur of the moment, and the character moves on the screen, but always faces right side, and the animation basically sucks (and initially, I had a typo that was breaking it; I need to learn to read the editor's font). And who knows, it might be all I'll do. But I built something today. I could actually do some tutorial, not jump head first.
This also marks my first Lua coding; not counting that one time that I copy-pasted damage logic for a floor in Roblox, to help my daughter.
Kokuho
"Kokuho" is a Japanese epic movie, telling a story of an onnagata, an actor playing female roles in kabuki theatre. And when I say epic, I mean the volume of it: the action spans 50 years and has many twists on the way. It was very well researched and prepared (the main actors spend 18 months with an actual theatre). For all the Japan lovers, it's a must. It's also very educational. Just wow.
2026-04-12
Fuck, I had to put my dog down. It was the best thing that we could have done, all things considered, but still, it hurts as hell.
One of the things I never considered about living in a place where there's always summer weather; or almost never -- when a thing like your pet's untimely death happens, the world seems to contradict these dire circumstances with all its clear sky and blue seas.
2026-04-13
A post from Cory Doctorow
"Socialism or barbarism" isn't just a cliche - it's actually a choice on the ballot.
eof/
2026-04-13
To run it on Rocknix, I had to buy Pico-8, because they don't include it out-of-the-box. But, once I had it, I ran it on my computer, and it turned out to be way more funnier than I expected. I thought, well, okay, I can explore and play games through the website, right? Wrong! The fully integrated Splore makes the experience much more immerse. The start screen heavily reminds me of Commodore 64. So much nostalgia (but, with much more responsive controls!).
On unfairness of moving on
From Sociopath World, I remember something that really stuck with me: when someone close to you dies (including a pet), it is a horrible feeling, but over time, it tones down and -- as I remembered it -- "it feels a bit cruel and unfair" to that person. But life moves on. Either this or you get locked into this grief, which is never good.
I guess the trick is to, as someone presented it to me visually once, "REMEMBER, Remember, remember, but -- differently, Differently, DIFFERENTLY."
(Yes, I read Sociopath World for a couple of years a decade ago or so.)
Mastodon is difficult
I think a lot of "Mastodon is difficult" comes from the fact that the vast majority of people came to Twitter when it was running for years and had most of its issues ironed out. The same people would bounced of from earlier Twitter just the same.
Now, Mastodon is not Twitter, and I don't mean the political leaning or general social dynamics but the technical approach, so it's not gonna be possible to reproduce it here. We'll need to find our way. But also, I don't think Mastodon should be this Room With Everyone In The World. We tried that with Twitter, and it failed.
A boy who saved starfish
A story I heard somewhere (could have been in a penta-costal church).
There was a boy who would go to a beach every morning, to pick up starfish that were thrown to the shore by the tide, and threw them back into the sea. One day, a man saw him and said, "Why are you doing this? It doesn't change anything; they will be on the shore tomorrow just as well." The boy, unfazed, picked up another starfish, showed to the man, and said, "For this starfish, it does matter." And he threw it into the sea.
Three Virtues
Not sure I agree, but it makes me think.
According to Larry Wall, the original author of the Perl programming language, there are three great virtues of a programmer; Laziness, Impatience and Hubris
Laziness: The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful and document what you wrote so you don't have to answer so many questions about it.
Impatience: The anger you feel when the computer is being lazy. This makes you write programs that don't just react to your needs, but actually anticipate them. Or at least pretend to.
Hubris: The quality that makes you write (and maintain) programs that other people won't want to say bad things about.
Reference: The Three Virtues (Wayback Machine) | Source code: dAnjou/enumerations.three_virtues
Source: https://threevirtues.dev
2026-04-14
I find funny stuff helpful in my state.
"This book is still in development.
Ordering now will give you access to the current state of the book. See below for current status.
Estimated date of completion is October 2018."
Oh well.
2026-04-16
People having a field day with Bluesky not working.
Rock'n'roll.
The Chaos Engine - Original Soundtrack [YouTube link]
Let's try.
Stop Google from limiting APK file usage
Maybe it's good that Bluesky is down today, because I use it for the news, as there are more journalists there, and recently, the timeline has been very stupid. It's a breather for.
(I have some political stuff here, too, but mixed with tech and games and Pico-8 and art, so it's not so overwhelming. Maybe it's a wake up call to give that up.)
2026-04-17
Some interesting analyses after yesterday's Bluesky outage. There are two aspects to it; the technical explanation was one (memcache, etc.), but only some focused on flaws of the general architecture.
2026-04-18
Instead of reading the political news -- because my main source for them, also known as Bluesky, was down -- I played Pico-8 games, and it was a much better experience. I feel I'm ready to start writing short reviews of selected games I found there. Because they are small, they are often based on original gimmicks. It's so refreshing after big productions, which play it safe all too often.
I've got interested in "The Chaos Engine" recently, having fond memories of the game, from my Amiga 1200. It inspired me to buy "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, as apparently, the plot of the game is roughly inspired by the book. I went to GOG today, and there it was at the price of 2 euros, even less, so, despite the bad reviews, I decided to buy it. I played a little, but I'll try the Mega Drive port on R36S later, too.
It took me years to realise that it's bitmap and not bitamp. So, for ages, I thought that the team behind "The Chaos Engine" was called Bitamp Brothers; which, come think of it, could be a name for a DJ collective, had they settled for Beat-amp (amplified, anyone?) spelling.
(It also took me long to realise the purpose of "the," which is an institution not present in my language, so I was just omitting it in my mental models.)
Veep (Season 6)
Season 6 of "Veep" is set some months after Selina Meyer lost the presidential election, and I found it interesting, this follow-up of what happens "after the end." Character wise, we have the same pack. I am wondering if Selina became a worse person this season, or perhaps, she was always like that, but it was not so evident to me? No clue, but she's an absolutely abhorrent person: to her daughter, to Gary, to everyone. We'll see where she'll get in the final season.
Slow Horses (Season 1)
"Slow Horses" is a spy show based on books I have never heard of. Slough House, a dead-end post in London ran by Jackson Lamb, where agents are being sent to as punishment, ends up as a part of a larger scheme. The main highlight for me was marvellous performance from Gary Oldman, whose comments would grant him a role in "Veep." The writing was good, with well-built and well-used Chekhov's guns. There are 4 more seasons.
Strange Darling
"Strange Darling" is a thriller that starts with a woman running away from someone. But I don't wanna say too much. The plot is told out of order and offers a lot of twists; way more than there would be chronologically. Thanks to the selection of songs, the movie reminded me of Quentin Tarantino's style and a bit of "The End of the F***ing World." Shot on 35mm camera (by Giovanni Ribisi), it's a strong homage to the 1970s, but as if filtered through the 1990s, so the second order of abstraction.
The Surfer
"The Surfer" (2024) is a psychological thriller with Nicholas Cage. A man comes to a beach to show his son a place where he wants to buy a house, but gets stranded there due to a local gang of surfers. For the most time, the movie plays out like a nightmare that you can't wake up from, very much like the opening sequence of "Beau Is Afraid." Somewhere in the middle, I figured out how it will end. But it's a solid stuff. It felt weird because the beach and its parking reminded me of Għajn Tuffieħa, where I spent a lot of time when I lived in Malta.
Jules
"Jules" (2023) is a story of Milton, an elderly man slowly sliding into dementia. Early on, a flying saucer lands in his garden, but nobody believes him because he's old, so he starts helping the alien out. Then two of his friends join the party. Advertised as a comedy, which it is to a degree, it's rather a touching story of getting old. It was like "Knox Goes Away" but without crime aspect. Also, Ben Kingsley with long hair looks like Larry David.
The whole time, the movie felt like one of the 1990s Disney productions, or a Hallmark movie. There was this aura of friendliness and non-violence, and even police or secret service agents were more of a natural consequence, but they didn't do much in the end. But! While it might sound like a bad thing, "Jules" pulled that out successfully.
2026-04-19
The Carpenter's Son
"The Carpenter's Son" (2025) was supposed to be a supernatural horror, but I didn't find too many scary parts. It's an adaptation of one of apocryphas, and it feels like one, more than a horror. Nicholas Cage plays the titular carpenter and Mary is played by FKA Twigs, whom I didn't know until now (she reminded me of Mia Goth). I liked the dual Satan and the scenography, which felt like well researched, though I couldn't say how accurate it was.
Carrots
The friend in question just shared his Eels website with me: http://eels.ugu.pl/index.html (no HTTPS, but it's 25-year old).
You might notice carrot images in the sidebar. I remember when he came to my home and said he's missing images for his website. "What images?" I asked. "Carrots," he replied. (Carrots because of "Last Stop: This Town" videoclip.) "C'mon, I'll make you carrots," I said and opened MS Paint and quickly drafted two carrots, which are still alive over a quarter of century later.
The Partisan
I'll be damned. 23 years ago, I found a cover of "The Partisan" by Noir Désir, and listened to it a lot; it's one of those songs that I can recognise by its very first sounds, not even a melody. Fast-forward to today, I was listening to 16 Horsepower's album, which I shazamed from the Harry Hole's show trailer on Netflix. And there's that song. That very song. I thought it was mistagged in 2003, which happened a lot in the old days, but not quite: Noir Désir's vocalist did the French part of the lyric.
"The Partisan" is included on some editions of "Low Estate" by 16 Horsepower. Mid-album, I added it to my watchlist on Discogs, but now it became more relevant.
All the windy wind is blowing,
through the graves the wind is blowing.
Freedom soon will come.
2026-04-20
Notion is deteriorating. Just the other week, it randomly moved many tickets between the columns and now it's freezing.
The Gardener
"The Gardener" (2025) is a Spanish show about a young man, the titular gardener, who doesn't have feelings and works as an assassin for hire. But, suddenly, he starts feeling, which casts a shadow on his most recent hit. I was curious how Spaniards would tackle this topic. It's a mix of Dexter and "Too Old To Die Young" a bit (the relationship with mother). And then, there are detectives who seek to solve the case as much as an affair together. I couldn't figure out how it would end. Nice music.
2026-04-21
When I'm coding, I often start with a single file, and when it grows, I begin to see what can be extracted to separate files, and this continues until the structure emerges; and that's probably the true vibe-coding: I'm coding wherever the vibe takes me. If you're just writing prompts to a black box with goggly eyes, you might be doing the vibe but not the coding part.
2026-04-22
A post from Christine Lemmer-Webber
Play Twitter games, win Twitter prizes
2026-04-23
Slow Horses (Season 2)
"Slow Horses," season 2, has a new plot but is also building a super arc across the seasons, it seems; as it's not over. We're seeing more of Jackson Lamb in action, and he proves to be still having it as a spy. It's almost as if season 1 was meant to merely prepare the ground for him. I like how the show utilises those misfits and losers, to quote the opening song, which creates more relatable outcome than James-Bond-like super-spy stories. Because, by the end of the day, we're only humans.
We're checking Facebook pages to find a puppy to adopt, and the stories about dogs, and how they are found sometimes, are absolutely horrid. For instance, someone threw a dog wrapped in a plastic bag, with a broken leg, into the dumpster; luckily, someone found her. Why? Or, there was a guy who kept his dogs in a dark cellar, to the point that they were not used to light. Why?? I always imagine a big, concrete-walled hole where I'm throwing this people into, where they can slowly die of starvation.
To find a puppy to adopt, I had dust off my Facebook account -- I even updated the avatar -- because that's the primary mean of communication here in Spain. Shelters have their own pages, but the core activity seems to be happening on Facebook. Though, the place being Spain, it's possible that there are WhatsApp groups (still Meta :D), but I was not able to locate any of those.
2026-04-24
I rarely comment on single episodes, especially when the show is still running, but "The Boys" S05E04 really fell into my liking: the abandoned hospital with quite a horror setting, people jumping at each others' throats, and one sane person in the room. It was not a horror in a sense of being scary, that was just the props; it could fell into a psychological thriller. A really positive surprise.
This is nice. But the price ðŸ«
I guess, an e-ink tablet that has a single purpose of handling text files -- very maybe, Markdown -- could be a cool thing. A screen size of a paper and being able to plug in the keyboard. I suppose, the market would be too small for that.
The other option would be to pair up this computer-in-the-keyboard Raspberry combined with an e-ink display.
An idea for research.
2026-04-25
Educating myself on hammers on this rather chilly evening. I caught an interest in a dead-blow hammer, whose head can be partially filled with loose steel shot, to distribute the energy of the blow better. Fascinating.
2026-04-26
We bought a glass bottle for olive oil, and, to my surprise, it turned out to be yellow; well, golden, actually. Because the bottles that they sell olive oil in are green, it got somehow imprinted in my head. But now, it's time to unlearn that. Also, the glass bottle is much more convenient.
I had this short story following me for months, and it was meant to be a part of another cycle, or rather: with another main character, but it would never quite fit there. Yesterday, however, as I was walking my dog, a final piece fell into its place, and I sat down and wrote it down.
I think at least one more story fits Charmer Sophismatique, so I shall return to him.
On Friday, a friend told me that "Nocturnal" is for free on Steam, so I took it. If game's free, I'm usually on; that's like 98% of my GOG collection. I just had a try, and it sucked me in good. I like games with Arabic audiovisual themes, so it fell to my liking. Alas, the batteries in my gamepad went dead, and I had to take a break. Then my computer died; something with a graphic card. But I'd like to finish it at some point.
I would really like to try "The Siege and the Sandfox," but it seems it's only for PC, while I would really love to play it in my living room, where I have Switch. But, anyway, I am generally planning to cut down on playing, to read more, and maybe write, too. So, all these games, they're not for me.
Exotica
"Exotica" (1994) is definitely a weird one, but in a good way. It's a rather ensemble cast, as the plot follows a couple of characters: a man obsessed with an erotic dancer, a DJ there, as well as the owner, then an owner of a pet shop. During the film, it all seemed coming from nowhere, but once it finished, all the pieces made sense. It was really good to see Don McKellar; I really like him. And young Bruce Greenwood; well, youngish -- that I didn't have on my bingo card.
The movie was advertised in the U.S. as an erotic thriller, but it's neither erotic, despite action set in a strip club, nor thriller. If anything, it's a drama.
Lazarus
"Lazarus" is a 13-episode anime, telling a story of a special task force that has to find a doctor who produced a painkiller that is going to kill everyone in 30 days. The beginning is slow, and I even thought it's gonna be more like a procedural, but from the episode with the cult, vaguely reminding me of "Midsommar," the plot started taking off. In the end, it was really good, tasting like a mix of "Cowboy Bebop" and William Gibson books. Plus really nice soundtrack; actually, soundtracks, as there are three.
"Cowboy Bebop" is not a coincidence: it was done by the same man. Axel Gilberto, one of the main characters, reminded me of Spike, with his clothes, devil-may-care attitude, and a haircut. But it's a different thing. At times, audiovisually, it felt like a throwback to the 1990s style that, in itself, would be a throwback to 1970s anime, if it makes sense.
The slow beginning allowed stronger building of the backstories.
So, yeah. I'm hoping for season 2.
The Captive
"The Captive" is a story of 5 years that Miguel de Cervantes, the creator of Don Quixote, spent in Algerian prison. It's not strictly biographic, as it heavily leans on Cervantes' gaiety, but it doesn't matter: it's a good story of someone who learns the power of telling stories. And visually, it's really well done. I liked how they threaded in Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. While it was shot in Spain, not Algiers, we have a lot of Muslim castles here to make it work.
Smiling Friends
"Smiling Friends" dropped two more episodes, which turned out to be the last two episodes. They were good, and I will have fond memories of the craziest possible narratives that I have seen anywhere; probably only "Salad Fingers" can outmatch it. The creators felt that they wouldn't be able to keep up the level, and I understand that and respect.
2026-04-27
Operating Windows and Ubuntu interchangeably would be so much easier if switching desktops and songs in TIDAL didn't have the same key combinations but swapped.
Come think of it, we made a full circle: books started as scrolls, which means they didn't have pagination; it was just a continuous text that you -- drumroll -- scrolled. Which is what websites are. A well-done HTML document is literally a wall of text; plus illustrations, if you please. I think it's cool.
2026-04-28
So, 2020 was already 6 years ago. It just hit me.
A quote from "Dune"
"Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you someone who's covering mistakes. Real boats rock."
2026-04-30
When I eat too much bread/flour, I get pissed off easily. In the recent weeks, it seemed that I was able to eat more and more, with no usual effects. But today, it hit me like a fucking juggernaut, and I'm cursing at the computer. :D So, a break from bread now.