121 - The Start of 2022 🌱🎉
Hey there, - we back.
How y'all feeling? 2021 was a stinker, so the break was sorely needed for me.
How 'bout you? It's good to rest, recover, reinvigorate and reset your world in preparation for the (hopefully) wonderful year to come.
I both got a lot done, and not a lot done over the break - the liminal period between Christmas and New Years just hits different - here's a snapshot:
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Got through a bunch of movies and books - Hawkeye was a great lil' Disney+ series that met expectations; the Love Actually-Die Hard back to back was super fun (and will probably be added to my yearly rewatch); watched The Lighthouse, First Cow, LOTR, John Wick etc. during the break; haven't caught Matrix Resurrections yet, but did get to see The French Dispatch (see below for recommend!)
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Contacted a few builders and will be getting more quotes for the new place - hoping to get this done by the middle of the year (setting deadlines is more motivating...right?)
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Went and saw friends and family, spending some great relaxing times with them all (I also got 2 crates of Mee Goreng in a White Elephant game - what a rush), and played a lot of boardgames - started getting really into Scythe strategy and working out how to win (as I kept getting crushed!) - I think it's a by-product of playing games more than once...which is usually so hard to organise HAHA
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Became a close contact for a friend who was COVID-positive, meaning I had to isolate last week - which explains why I got through so many movies and books :D Luckily I got to the library and have been tearing through some great ones - The Godfather in book form is fantastic and will let y'all know when I've finished it.
A few things about the newsletter:
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I'm going to try and make these a little shorter - in a review from last year I did notice that I write...a LOT so I'm going to try and reduce long posts to once a month. If it starts getting out of hand I'm considering moving it to a blog, so that you guys aren't reading an essay every week.
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I'm trying to branch out my writing and do more fiction (see here for some recent stuff) as well as write on particular topics. I want to build worlds, characters and understand the process for writing something longer than an essay / article length. I'm finding the right channels for these first and will let you know when the pieces come out :D
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The Chinese Zodiac book I usually reference hasn't actually shipped to Australia yet for some reason! I'm as crushed as you are (obviously) but this may delay the annual fortune telling. But I'm sure you're fine ;)
Chat soon :)
Let me know if you have any feedback for the newsletter!
✔️Real Life Recommendations
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The French Dispatch - by Wes Anderson, a new 'anthology' movie that is also a story within a story within a story. It reminded me of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs by the Coen Brothers because it gave a great sense of 'feeling' for the chosen genre (in their case Westerns, in this case Newspapers). I loved it. It's a touching homage to writers and the various topics they cover, has an absolutely star-studded cast (essentially every character is someone you'll know / has worked with Wes before) and the style is classic, wonderful Wes Anderson. More specifically, I think I'm growing to love how he writes his monologues that go for what seem like pages and pages, filled with esoteric vocabulary and a penchant for flowery words that just...sound nice. Something that I want to be good at too.
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The Anatomy of Story - by John Truby. It's a book that is heavily referenced by newsletter-favourite Lessons from a Screenplay - giving a comprehensive breakdown of why stories work, what techniques are important, and how they can be planned to perfection. It states there is a 22-step process, which is excruciatingly detailed, but what I liked about it was understanding why people make decisions when writing a story (e.g. about creating characters with weakness and desire, putting the right challenges in place, building the perfect villain and plan, and the resolution of story arcs etc.) that make the story more effective. The author is a screenwriter, so it used more movie-type examples, but these components still exist in books, novels and series as well. I love being able to identify it when I'm consuming content - it helps me understand why something is good, and heightens my enjoyment.
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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Wordle is a Love Story - y'all been playing Wordle? It's Mastermind x Scrabble(?) - essentially, you have to try and guess a 5 letter word within 6 guesses; the computer tells you if you have a letter in the right spot, the wrong spot, or it doesn't exist in the word at all. It's very, very fun, and easy to play. What I like from a behavioural standpoint as well is that you can only play once per day - it doesn't ask that much of you - maybe 5 minutes a day? - so is low effort and easy to share results for. Let me know how you go with it :)
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The rule to making your own game is that there are no rules - I remember making up an extremely fun, niche game with a deck of cards that showed Singaporean landmarks with a friend that broke down as soon as we tried to make it a 'real' game; I played pretend when I was young with kids all the time - making up games as we went; I'm currently playing D&D which, well, okay has a crapton of rules up front, but once you have the playground, the sandbox, in which to play, the restrictions help facilitate the creativity. But really, games are about the people, not the game; if you're having fun with each other and making some great memories, you're succeeding, even if it's a shit game.
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Return of the Crazy Frog - somehow, the Crazy Frog returned. This time, in the form of an NFT scam that was trying to capitalise on the brand power (lol) of Crazy Frog, that actually spurred the guys behind Crazy Frog launch their own "official" Crazy Frog NFT, with predictable backlash. A fun read.