295 - life update ☀️🍕🐈⬛
gandalf's 6th bday, sunny days, and...jane austen?
Hey there, !
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I love the sun. It's been shining daily and is so damn good. Spring seems like it's coming and we are loving it...(but dreading the hayfever). Ah well. Had a getaway recently which was very wholesome and fun - so we're on the up and up with the weather and the vibes :)
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The celebrancy stuff is tortoise-ing through - slow, but steady. I'm at 7/12 submitted ceremonies now, and I'll be at 8 hopefully, by the end of the week. I've applied for another extension, unfortunately, but fingers crossed! As long as we can get there in the end :) Hoping to be done by the end of the year - what a long road it will be.
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I'm still experimenting with the pizza oven it has given me great joy - read last week's newsletter for more info! Some things I'm planning to experiment with further: different dough recipes (going to try a poolish method), non-traditional toppings (Asian toppings for example), consistency in the preparation, and getting better at actually launching it into the oven.
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The next time I see you on a multiple of 5 newsletter will be number 300, which is kinda cool - to have continued on for 6 years (approx.) is very nice and thank you all for being here. I will do more reflecting on this soon! For now all I'll say is that it is a wonderful thing to have space somewhere to just keep writing and writing and writing. Perhaps it's drivel and stream of consciousness, but at least I succeeded in creating a habit for it in my life.
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Gandalf just had his adopt-aversary - he's now 6!! Everyone spam Happy Birthday Gandalf in the replies thanks <3
Chat soon :)
(P.S. If you've got any feedback for the newsletter, just hit the reply button!)
📋Today's Story
Result: Take the jetpack and fly over to see if you can help Jimmy
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"Okay, let me see where Jimmy's at," you say, stripping off your equipment. "Hide this guy away and join us quick."
You detach the jetpack off the suit, strap it to your back, and launch up towards the hellish sky. You emerge just above the treetops, and survey the landscape - ashen, black and smoldering like an entrance to Hell. As you speed above the forest, you notice spotlights approaching where your ship should be. You don't see the Borrowed Time in sight, which is a relief, and you hope that Jimmy's safe.
As you close in, you crash down a little bit away from the clearing to watch the situation unfold.
Where the fuck is Jimmy? you duck down behind an outcropping of rocks, and try to observe closer.
From your hidden vantage point, you watch as the three figures, one limping a little, stride up towards to the ship. They bring out a device, converse with each other briefly, and press something on it. With a jolt, the silhouette of the Borrowed Time flickers as the stealth tech tries to keep up with mirroring the rapidly changing fiery landscape, but catastrophically fails - the grey and black exterior of your ship, damaged with ugly scars materialising into the forest. The hatch creaks open below the ship, dropping a ladder down, exhaust smoke hissing out due to the atmosphere change.
"Hull 035 confirmed - aggressive resistance from survivors. Team update - one lost in engagement, one with severe burns," a crackly robotic voice emanates from your jetpack, with the translation following quickly afterwards. "Ship extraction for Facility 717 preparations are in progress. Request for priority on eliminating survivors. Over."
A humanoid, female voice responds, "Confirmed Seven-Two-Four. Ship extraction is priority - we'll send cleanup. Over."
The three figures climb up the ladder, with one obviously struggling behind them. They close the hatch behind them.
"Jimmy," you hiss into your comms. "Are you clear?"
TAP tap TAP tap. Tap TAP tap tap. Tap TAP tap.
"Okay, where?" you rapidly scan the surroundings - if he's signalling, then he's injured, or can't speak. Where is he???
TAP TAP TAP. TAP tap. CRSSSHK. A moment of harsh static, and then silence.
Incredulously, you look up at the ship - he's still on the ship?! He could be stowed away in one of the smuggler lockers, or perhaps in one of the external shuttles?
Switching directly to comms to Sayla, "Jimmy's still on the ship! How far are you?"
"I'm about 5 minutes out," Sayla pants. "Your stuff did pretty good damage here - it's a bitch to get through the heat."
"Okay, we'll need to sneak on to the ship, or follow it. I can't do my party trick twice, so we're going to have to be sneaky either way."
As you say this, you see the belly of a ship that seems to fill half the horizon - a grey, metallic cloud reaching down with cold efficiency to pick ships out of the ground. It's bigger than anything you'd seen before, and slowly fills your vision. Large Korean characters adorn it's underside in blinding red, adding to the dystopian vibe.
✔️Real Life Recommendations
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Pride and Prejudice - it's 5 stars I'm afraid - I don't know why I never watched this, probably some sort of mixture of 'it's a girl movie' (which is stupid) and 'i'll watch it eventually' but Steph put it on a recommendations list for me so I watched it and it's SO GOOD. Honestly it might look like it's for the girls but it's FOR THE BOYS: a) it's a lot of Com for a Rom, b) there is some strong bro/wingmanning in this which is amazing, c) it has a wise father figure who knows how to just be a complete chiller and love his daughters and d) you get to watch Keira Knightley at the height of her power with wispy bangs eat up the entire move theatre with yearning. Extremely highly recommended I have rarely interacted with Jane Austen but this was GREAT.
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Superman - 4 stars - it was good, it was earnest, it was comic book, it was Superman having to actually try without just winning stuff instantly, it was interesting villains and a cast of great side characters, it was DOG, it was just a more modern take on superheroes now they're so entrenched in our collective psyche. Recommended, but maybe it can wait for streaming.
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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Candle Flame Oscillations as a Clock - one wick = chaotic, but three wicks = ~9.9Hz oscillation. So...what could we do with that? A very interesting breakdown of #engineering.
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30 minutes with a stranger - pudding.cool does some cool visualisations, and breaks down some research they did with having 2 strangers talk to each other for half an hour, and what happened. Data viz, baybee!
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Create AI storybooks with illustrations in the Gemini app - this looks kinda cool? I feel like I saw a personalised storybook service for children, but this might be simpler. I do wonder, though, if this is the toboggan that's been pushed down the slippery slope and soon we'll be reading long-ass novels written by AI. Or maybe one day VinceAI will be writing this newsletter - imagine if it just kept posting after I was gone?! Potentially, interesting...