“More on the conference and other stuff later this week. Maybe.”
That was the end of my post a week ago. Oh well. Maybe a Sunday recap is all I’m able and ready to do these days.
This past week my mental capacity mostly was used up with work, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I feel like we’re getting somewhere with our main project and the next phase for it. Lots of good meetings with different people. A nice lunch break with a few colleagues – we often don’t manage that with our different work from home / at office schedule. A budget meeting that didn’t go as I had liked, but I have to deal with that anyway. At least it didn’t keep worrying about that all weekend, which is such progress from me a few years ago.
My current role in civic engagement also took up some of my time and I’m very much looking forward to stepping back a bit from it later this year. The social interaction of it takes most of the toll on me these days I think. I sometimes wonder if it’s the other people or me, but I guess it’s a combination of both and how we have changed over the years.
Whenever I felt it was all getting “too much” I also managed to not always seek distraction on my phone / TV / with books, but take a few moments to work on my recent “Doodling” it’s what I still call these:
But I also did fun stuff this week.
Yesterday I went to see two basketball games as part of the FISU – World University Games 2025, which take place in our metropolitan area that the moment. You not often have the chance to watch professional sports (and uni /college sport already feels quite professional) for just a few Euros. The US women and men basketball teams both had a game nearby so I went and it was enjoyable. I don’t know how the player / team selection usually takes place, but according to the info online this year the USA decided to not put together a team of various students from different university, but select one team to represent the US. For the women it is the Red Raiders from Texas Tech and for the men it’s the Baylor’s Bears for Baylor University.
It was fun to watch, even though I don’t really know much about basketball rules. Like how many steps are allowed while dribbling and such. For the men’s game I had people behind me who clearly did and who almost called the infraction before the referees did. But the general concept of the game I know so it was easy to follow.
I also made good of my Unlimited Card at the local multiplex and on Friday afternoon watched “Jurassic World – Rebirth”. I don’t remember how many of the Chris Pratt Jurassic movies I’ve watched; some I guess, but not all, I’m sure. I enjoyed this one though, because Jonathan Bailey makes a fine nerdy museum guy and there were nice heartwarming family moments with the sailboat family. With these kind of movies I know not to get attached to any of the secondary crew, because they are most likely to be killed in the genre specific disaster: here eaten by a dinosaur. So I didn’t care too much about all those ship crew, cheered early on when the rude annoying guy got culled, was indifferent about the other two. None of the good (nice, regular) people gets killed in this genrer anyway. So yeah, fun summer blockbuster movie.
The same goes for “Superman”, which I saw last weekend. Typical superhero genre movie, fun to watch if you don’t take it all too seriously. Because if you would seriously consider the death toll of that rift in the earth and everything else? But it’s a fictional superhero story, so you better not.
I realize I haven’t mentioned that the week before last, I also saw “F1” with Brad Pitt. That was a trip down memory lane. I liked him to look at and as an actor since the mid-90s. Not all his movies and all his looks, but he’s aged well and has still got “it”. The movie as such was quite interesting as well.
With going to the movies every week (sort of) I’ve seen the same trailers over and over again. I need some of those movies to come out already so I can watch them. Movie trailers I saw in descending order of my interest_
Fantastic Four – First Steps
I’m generally not a fan of the whole superhero genre (I only vaguely remembered the Justice League connection for Superman), but this 1950’s vibe has got me interested and I’ve also had a tiny girl crush on Vanessa Kirby, back when she was on “The Crown”.
Project Hail Mary
I like Ryan Gosling in general. Not all of his movie choices, but this looks like an interesting enough one. Not coming out before Spring 2026 though.
One Battle After Another
The same thing I say about Ryan Gosling goes for Leo diCaprio. I don’t watch all of his movies and with this one I’m afraid it might turn a bit too violent at some point, but all in all the setup seems interesting enough. And… it’s Leo diCaprio.
Materialists
I’m on the fence about this rom-com. Yes it has Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal competing for a woman’s affection, but the whole posh marriage matchmaker world it’s set in turns me off a bit. I still might see it, because of the Unlimited Card.
I Know What You Did Last Summer
I guess it’s not a direct remake of the 90’s slasher movie, but seems like a similar setup and plot. The characters (and actors) from the 90s all seem to make an appearance. I haven’t watched the one in the 90s, won’t watch now.
The Long Walk
Based on a Stephen King novel and it’s too dystopian and too gruesome for me from the trailer alone. Nope!
After the busy Friday afternoon (haircut, movies) and Saturday (civic engagement work, basketball) I knew today I had to decompress at home. On my own. Not talking to anyone. Instead I binge watched “Departure” Season 1 on Netflix.One more episode left to go, which is where I’m heading after publishing this.
