The Weekly Infodump, 2023/01/01
Welcome to The Weekly Infodump, which contains a short write-up of whatever is on my mind. You are allowed to share this newsletter with others and I hope you will.
NOT ME getting locked out of my own admin account because I am bad at remembering strings of random characters! Anyway, I'm back.
(Books) I am currently reading The Stars Undying by Emery Robin, which I picked up because I'm a former classics major and lifelong SF enthusiast who enjoys far-future retellings of ancient history (see: Kate Elliott's Unconquerable Sun). Based loosely on the reign of Cleopatra VII Philopator, this novel feeds a handful of special interests (Classical antiquity! Ancient civilizations! Shakespeare!). Plus, I love reading about political intrigue precisely because I do not have a diplomatic bone in my body – nor, for that matter, an all-consuming lust for power.
(Games) Would you be surprised to learn that I have an old laptop that exists primarily to play civilization builder games? Well, you shouldn't be, because IMHO these are the most autistic genre of video game: a digital version of lining up one's toys, with the added bonus of being able to do recreational urban planning. (Grids, baby!) Pharaoh (+ Cleopatra, my copy includes the expansion) is probably my favorite, although my enthusiasm inevitably begins to wane once I advance to the monument-building phase.
Yes, I know that elaborate funerary architecture is kind of the point of ancient Egypt. Nevertheless, the anti-royalist in me would like to point out that instead of sacrificing entire generations of human potential to the construction of enormous tombs we could just, you know, feed and house everybody in the here and now. Using the awesome power of grids.
(Links) Although I hear that "Miley's New Year's Eve Party" on NBC was the place to be last night (hats off to fellow Autist David Byrne for spending his December 31st dueting both more and less successfully with other artists), I still maintain that CNN's (Drunk) "New Year's Eve Live" is the televised special that best captures the "literally nothing is happening but we all still have to be at work because my asshole boss made this bullshit rule that only two people are allowed to take time off this week for reasons of 'coverage' and once again, it's Sharon and Dave because 'seniority'" energy of Twixmas, also known as "Dead Week."
This time, in response to last year's boozy countdown – which apparently caused so much behind-the-scenes drama that even Good Housekeeping felt compelled to comment??? -- hosts were not allowed to imbibe, which is absurd. CNN on New Year's Eve WITHOUT alcohol? What are we even doing here? As co-host Andy Cohen memorably put it, "This is a telethon without a disease. We are here all night, passing time." Fortunately, Don Lemon saved the day by missing the countdown for a literally Juvenile reason. This tweet sums it up perfectly:
"CNN has redeemed itself by ringing in the new year in New Orleans with "Back That Azz Up" and not acknowledging the stroke of midnight in any way"
Look, we've all been there: missing an important deadline because we got distracted? That's called being alive. Also ADHD. Raise your hand if you're both!
I'm told that Russians believe that however you meet the new year is how you'll spend the new year. If that's true, then I hope that we can all do as Don Lemon does and focus on what really matters: literally anything but our jobs, which do nothing but enrich the plutocrats.
The newsletter is over. There is no more to read until next time.