A TV Recommendation

My favorite TV show currently airing - at least until House of the Dragon starts - is The Rehearsal.  It's on HBO, and it stars Nathan Fielder.  If you haven't heard of him, he is a Canadian comedian.  And let's just say that his shows are a bit of an acquired taste.  But I think The Rehearsal is brilliant - it's a docu-comedy that is extremely funny, extremely weird and utterly compelling.  It's unlike anything else I've ever seen on TV - perhaps the closest thing in spirit to it is a Charlie Kaufman film, and that is high praise indeed.  The basic premise is that he helps people rehearse difficult conversations or life events though the use of sets and actors hired to recreate real situations.  But the series quickly goes WAY beyond this, and to to say much more would be to spoil it.  I don't know if or when it will air in the UK, but highly recommend catching it if you can.     

Blu ray player

Well, dang it.  A special 60th anniversary edition Blu ray of Dr No is being released with lots of extras, exactly the kind of thing I'd like to get, but I think it is a UK-only release.  Which means that it's not going to work on my PS5 (UK is Region B, US is Region A).  I might have to consider buying a region free Blu ray player.  Which is probably a good idea, because I've got a ton of DVDs from the UK that I also can't currently play.

Bonus

I had some good news this week.  I was awarded a "Key Contributor grant" - apparently it's a program that recognizes individuals who are critical to driving our company's future success (or so it says in the letter I got!).  And it's not an insignificant amount of money.  But the catch is that it's not a direct cash bonus, but I've instead been awarded some time-based restricted shares.  Basically they invest over a 3-year period - I receive a third each year.  Based on our current share price, it's worth over $20,000.  So that's a nice little bonus!  I've been awarded RSU's in the past, but not for ages and I think this is the first time since I rejoined the company.  But this came as a complete surprise, and frankly I haven't done nearly enough work in my job recently to warrant this.  So why have I been given it now?  I have some theories.  Possibly it's because they think I might want to leave my job soon - I certainly seem to give off the energy of someone who wants to leave.  It might also be because I haven't been promoted for ages, and I'm probably overdue a promotion that I'm not going to get anytime soon because again I haven't done nearly enough work recently to justify it.  Or, the worse case scenario, I'm about to be assigned a nightmarish and stressful project to work on - and this is to soften me up.  So I have my suspicions.  Or perhaps I'm just an ungrateful SOB!            

Camano Ridge Trail

Earlier this week, I braved the heat to walk a new trail to me - Camano Ridge Trail on Camano Island, about an hour's drive north.  I did take a couple of photos, but this is typical Pacific NW forest habitat so it looks like a lot of other trails I do regularly.  The difference was that this one was pretty quiet - I only encountered 2 people on the entire loop, a jogger and a forager.  So if I'm seeking solitude, this is the hike to do.  I must have walked about 4 miles around the perimeter of the trail - but you could easily make this a shorter or longer hike by taking different routes.  And it has just enough ups and downs to make it a nice little workout.  And much like several hikes I've done recently, I was plagued by bugs - despite spraying myself liberally with bug spray.  It gets to the extent where you imagine you hear buzzing in your ear even when there isn't anything there, and it drives you crazy.  And then you discover several new insect bites when you get home.  This summer seems to have been particularly bad for this.  But with more warm weather in the forecast, it's not going to stop me going out.

We Met In Virtual Reality

I saw the documentary We Met in Virtual Reality a few days ago, which was filmed entirely in virtual reality.  In a word, it's weird.  But it has stuck in my consciousness for a few days now, so it must have done something right.  But I definitely have some thoughts:

- I thought the graphics in virtual reality would be a bit more technologically advanced than what they showed here.  It didn't look good - very glitchy.  I think we have a long way to go for virtual reality to really become something more mainstream than what it is.  This is not The Matrix.

- Because this was filmed entirely in virtual reality, what I was really curious about was what these people featured in the documentary looked like in real life.  Instead they just had these preposterous avatars.  For example, I very much doubt this big-breasted, short-skirted character in the documentary looked anywhere near as attractive in real life.  They should have included little thumbnails next to each avatar, showing what these people really looked like.

- Reality and virtual reality are not the same.  It was quite disturbing how many of these people seemed to blur the lines.  There was a "virtual" marriage featured in this documentary, with the implication that these people would actually get married in real life.  I just don't see that working out.  Virtual reality cannot replicate physical touch, eye contact, other fundamentals - you'll never be able to show all and be all your full self in a virtual world.  It's why virtual reality will always be flawed.

- As someone who doesn't even embrace social media, I don't see myself embracing these virtual reality communities any time soon.  They don't appeal to me in any way whatsoever, and it all seems a bit weird and a bit off.  But of course our "real" reality could in fact be a very advanced virtual reality - so this could in fact be a virtual reality within a virtual reality.  If that's the case, then unplug me now.

Song of the Week #121

Another 70's classic - with a particularly funky bass.

Monday

It's Monday.  I'm tired and hot and I don't feel like writing anything.  This is why I'm thinking about taking a break from the blog for a little while - it's started to become a bit of a chore.  TBD.