Weeknotes 2023 Apr 30

A lot has happened since the beginning of the month.

For work, we've cut our all-out departmental gathering from three times a year to only two. Part of it is because we're getting so big that they are becoming more expensive, but also because it's just hard to plan for an event of that size every four months or so.

Regardless, it's a great time to meet up and hang out with everyone on the team. I truly love working with everyone here. Makes me excited to go to work every day.

The day after getting back from the work trip, I was ready for some nature so we headed out on Woods Canyon Trail which is one we haven't been on before. A long, ten mile hike, but it was nice to have the creek beside us.

After almost a year of trying to find an existing house, we decided that didn't feel like it was going to happen. We bought a lot to build our dream home on. Closed on it last week.

We'd already selected the builder we want to work with. They can't break ground until next summer, but that gives us plenty of time to get a design selected and approved.

The first step after closing was ordering a topography/landscape survey, along with a soil sample survey that we need to go in front of our new HOA Architecture Review Board to start the process officially. the surveys have been ordered but can take a month. I'll post on progress as we go.

Movies

• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was pretty fun. Felt a bit like a fantasy version of Guardians of the Galaxy. No need to be a D&D nerd going in, but I guess it helps a bit.

• Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris was a delightful movie about a cleaning woman who, after seeing a Dior dress at a client's apartment, dreams about owning her own Dior dress.
• Nope is, I feel, the most accessible of Jordan Peele's films. Still turns the films it's inspired by on their heads a bit. I liked it, and it has stuck with me a bit.
• Renfield ended up be a great time at the theater. Just dumb fun.
• Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva seems to be India's answer to the Marvel universe. Enjoyed it and will likely see the sequel.
• Kill Boksoon is on Netflix. About a mom who's the best killer there is just trying to deal with her teenage daughter when at home. Was average, but did have some great action scenes.
• Evil Dead Rise is a great entry in this series although it could just stand on its own. Wish I could have seen it at a midnight screening with a theater full of raving fans.
• The Thing (2011) could never really hold a candle to John Carpenter's horror epic. Sure it was a remake itself, but it's hard to improve upon perfection.
• Troll is another film on Netflix. Having watched War of the Gargantuas again recently, this film felt close enough to it that I really thought a second Troll was going to appear at some point.

• Project Wolf Hunting is available to rent and one of the films I was excited to see at last year's FantaticFest, but wasn't available to OnDemand attendees. this film was a blast. Definitely recommended. But I recommend going in without watching the trailer as it gives away a lot.

Reelhouse Foundation Films

Due to some inclement weather and some special events, we had a bit of an eclectic mix of films this past month.

• Super Mario Bros. (1993) With the release of the new, animated, Mario Bros. movie, we had this throwback which is quite an awful film. I had seen it but didn't remember much. Really bad.

• Millenium Actress (2001) is a Japanese anime film I've watched a number of times and remains one of my all-time favorites. About a documentary film crew who have tracked down a long-elusive film star of the past to get her story and the reason she disappeared at the top of her fame.
• Assassin 33 A.D. (2020) is a pretty new film for the Reelhouse series, but right up our alley. Time travel is invented so it's determined that the best thing to do by the owner of the company, an extremist, is to go back in time and prove that Jesus never rose from the dead. Awful in the best way possible.

Agents of SMERSH : Epic Edition Board Game

I owned the original version of this game and liked it a lot. Heavily based on 60's spy films with a bit of comedy.

Somehow, the new epic edition somehow doesn't quite add up to more or better. After my playthrough I felt similar to how I did after playing Skyrim: The Board Game. After a period of time, it felt like I was doing a lot of the same thing and don't feel there's a lot of replay value.

I may give it another shot, but so far, I'm a little disappointed as I certainly had a better feeling after playing the original edition.