Weeknotes 23 Oct 2020

Wade Winningham -

The second wave of COVID seems to be upon us now. Just when things felt okay enough for my wife and I to plan a short trip to a place we've wanted to visit in New Mexico, new restrictions may prevent our plans. Those are for December, so I'll remain optimistic for now, although my wife is not.

One thing I guess everyone is trying to figure out is about holidays. I'd be happy to stay home and isolated, but when you're mom's already talking about getting together, stress-free isn't what I'd call it.

Lake Mineral Wells State Park

For our sixth wedding anniversary, my wife and I decided to take a day trip to this park, mainly because of Penitentiary Hollow, which is a unique area with high cliffs suitable for rock climbing.

Penitentiary Hollow in Lake Mineral Wells State Park

We're not rock climbers, but the scenery is quite different than most other areas around Dallas, so that drew us to it.

As you can see from the photos, it was quite unique. Not a huge area, but a really quite, relaxing day to enjoy the outdoors.

Work

While we're doing some stuff at work to make things less of a grind, it's still a bit of a grind. A new thing some of us are trying next week is a cooking class where attendees are planning to cook the same dish together over video.

Movies

  • Enola Holmes was a fun film that debuted on Netflix this month. One of the better straight-to-the-service ones I've seen although it kind of reminded me of the Dickinson series on Apple+.  I think I may have LOL'd almost every time the main character broke the fourth wall.
Presenting the last Alamo Film for a while
  • The World's End is a film I've seen a few times before and was unfortunately the swan song for the short reopening of my local Alamo Drafthouse cinema prior to them shutting down again as most theaters are. A fitting film both in title and significance to the Alamo here in Dallas since it was the film that opened the launch of the chain back in 2013. The film itself was better than I remembered it, so obviously stands up to repeat viewings.
  • Good Time is one I'd wanted to watch for a while and it was quite good. Robert Pattinson is really good at playing a bad person who does nothing but uses everyone around him.
  • Dead of Night (aka Deathdream) is a film from 1974 directed by Bob Clark who is most famous for directing A Christmas Story. This film is a far cry from that. About a son returning from the Vietnam war who may or may not be living. Really creepy, slow-burn film.
  • Let's Scare Jessica to Death is one of those films I remember seeing commercials for when I was a kid. Sounded terrifying but one I'd never gotten around to watching. Until now. I'd say it's weird and not all that terrifying. I wasn't missing much.

Eldritch Horror

This is one of my favorite games. I love playing but have never won. I still try. I think the main reason is because I'm drawn the Lovecraft universe and the game presents a dynamic story through the setup and actions you take.

In this play-through thus far, I feel like I'm doing okay, but just got a huge beat down upon discovering an ancient sculpture which proceeded to suck half the life and sanity out of all of my characters.

Traveling around the world to solve the mysteries required to keep Azathoth from awakening.

I'm still optimistic, but not confident all the current characters are going to survive.