— पांच हजार बत्तीस —

I'm already starting a list of Christmas movies I want to watch this coming December.

I don’t care that it's still only August, it's never too soon! I was listening to this week's episode of the podcast Little Gold Men, in which they discussed the Oscar ceremony from 20 years ago, which takes us back to 2001. One of the movies that came up was Bridget Jones's Diary, for which Renée Zellweger was nominated for Best Actress (the film's only Oscar nomination), and which I have not watched in, well, a generation I suppose. I bet I would enjoy a re-watch, and although I don't remember this about it, the podcast hosts insisted it's "a Christmas movie." Oh, is it? All right, then. On the list for Christmas 2021 it goes!

God knows what the holiday season in 2021 is going to look like. Likely not fully ideal, still, but hopefully still better than 2020. Establishments all over the country are adopting vaccine mandates, a movement that seems just now to be picking up steam and I predict will be the rule rather than the exception far sooner than later. I'm fully on board.

I was talking to Eric about this during our weekly 1:1 meeting, which as usual was over Microsoft Teams yesterday, starting at 2:00 and going long by about 30 minutes—until my laptop itself ended the meeting by shutting down when the battery died. I had taken the laptop into the phone room near my desk, and I guess I can say from vivid experience that the battery lasts ninety minutes. I did not take it in there with the cord.

Anyway, we talked a fair amount about the current spike in COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant. I mentioned the broad expectation that, like in Israel, the UK and India, it will spike super-high relatively soon and then drop off steeply (an expectation that is apparently somewhat disputed), including that at least one of the doctors I follow on TikTok broadly predicts a peak in mid-September. Eric made a pretty valid point, though: the spikes in those other countries were at earlier times in the year, mostly in the spring, and the expected "drop-off" of Delta cases is placed right around the fall, when people will be moving much more back indoors, and transmission of viruses of all kinds already peak every year as it is. So, who the fuck knows. That seems to be the general idea with all this shit: who the fuck knows?

The office is usually empty today, even by recent standards, by the way. In my usual little cluster of four desks, I am the only one in the office: both Scott and Tracy are on PTO and Noah has opted to work from home today. (Yesterday he asked if there was any need for him to be here today and I said "Nope" without even looking away from my computer.) But, all the other departments are quite empty today as well.

I just took a quick walk around the office to take inventory. I'm one of 4 people here in Merchandising. The most in one department, predictably, was HR—pretty sure there are 6 there. I see 3 people here in Accounting; 2 people in Operations; one person in Marketing; one person in IT and no one at all in Social & Environmental Responsibility. I saw one guy at a desk near the Executive corner of the office but I don't know who he is or what department he's in. That's a grand total of 18 people I've counted. And we have a total office staff of around 120.

Of course, far more than 18 people are actually working today—lots of people, like Noah and like many others who continue to do so most days, are working from home. There must have been at least double today's number here yesterday, and I was struck by the larger-than-usual percentage of people walking around all day with face masks on. I saw Chris H who works in IT yesterday for the first time in-person in ages; he had a mask on. Jess, who is now Eric's boss, wore one any time she left her desk. I know that it's prudent, but I'm still choosing to go mask-less inside the office unless or until a directive comes down telling me otherwise. I know the generally accepted terms of the level of protection I have being vaccinated, which is not as high as it was in May but still remains quite high. And I do mask up when anywhere else inside the building, or inside any other public building for that matter. (Office spaces currently remain exempt from the "indoor public spaces" we are currently required to wear a mask in, in King County.)

One policy also remains in effect: unvaccinated people are allowed to work in the office if they want, but those people must wear a mask at all times (except when eating). I know a lot of people wearing masks are actually vaccinated, so there's no real pinpointing people in specific categories here. I have no idea if they'll ever do this, but I kind of wish we would follow the movement of vaccine mandates, and tell all office staff that if you want to work in here, you must be vaccinated. I would be all over supporting such a policy.

— पांच हजार बत्तीस —

— पांच हजार बत्तीस —

Shobhit had his Thursday Project Management class last night, during which I went back to watching a movie for review on VOD at home, my first since reviewing Sublet, which was four reviews ago. This one was French Exit, which I finally was convinced to watch by yet another podcast yesterday, which wasn't even that much of a rave: the guy said he watched it on a plane and gave it "a gentleman's B." So, I wasn't expecting much, but my interest was sure as shit piqued when he mentioned a cat plays prominently in the plot, and "the cat matters, in a surprising way." Boy, was that and understatement.

And I must say, the movie exceeded my expectations on nearly every level, something that was doubly impressive after I remained skeptical of it for the first good twenty minutes or so. But in the end, I loved it so much I could have easily turned around and watched again the moment it ended. But, I had to write my review.

I had tried to get Ivan interested in watching it with me sometime, and the mention of the cat did seem to stoke some moderate interest at first, but after he finally watched the trailer, he finally confessed to me last night that "it's probably not something I'm going to prioritize." Spoken like a guy with real practice at diplomatic language. Well, he really missed out. After he suggested we watch an episode of The Leftovers and I had to remind him Shobhit had his class, I just went ahead and spent much of the evening watching that movie and then writing the review.

I stand by the B+ I gave it. From an objective standpoint, this movie is far from "great cinema." What it is, is delightfully eccentric entertainment—it has the potential to really endure, I think, or at least it would have in a time when the market wasn't nearly as saturated with film offerings. I really do want to watch it again, and there's so much out there to watch that I hardly ever re-watch anything anymore. Maybe I can get Laney to watch it, whenever it's available streaming. It's only on VOD right now and I paid six bucks to watch it. Honestly it was the best six bucks I've spent in months. That movie had a vibe that truly, truly spoke to me.

— पांच हजार बत्तीस —

The weekend ahead remains somewhat of a mystery as to how it will be spent, except for Happy Hour with Laney at Volunteer Park after work today. Hopefully it's not as smoky, but who the hell knows. Wildfire smoke rolled into town yesterday, so the city is gross yet again. We've dealt with this nearly every year for the past five years now, I think. Maybe 2019 was the only year when there wasn't much of it? Clearly this is a new normal, and I fucking hate it. I suppose I should be grateful that, so far at least, it's not nearly as bad as it got last year, which was by far the worst. Then again, it's early yet; last year's smoke bullshit lasted well into September.

Any other free time I have, I suppose, I should work on getting my Auntie Rose memorial video finished. It's going to have some unusual elements, as I made several screenshots of texts and emails she sent me over recent years, a lot of them her cute habit of wishing me a "Happy National Pancake Day" or whatever weird holiday it happened to be. I have a feeling Valerie in particular will appreciate the video once it's done. In a way, it will be more for her than for anyone, unless you count myself. On Grandma and Grandpa McQuilkin's side of the family—Auntie Rose was Grandma's sister—I honestly don't think anyone else had a bonded relationship with Auntie Rose quite like I did.

— पांच हजार बत्तीस —

[posted 12:43 pm]