πWeek Notes 050
π // Dec 7, 2025 - Dec 13, 2025
Unseasonably warm, wet, and windy December week this time out. The grass in our backyard has taken a beating from the dogs, but thankfully they haven't been getting too muddy. Other than that really uneventful at our house other than getting all of the Christmas decorations and Christmas tree fully deployed. We purchased a couple of additional portable indoor fencing units to strategically block trees (we have a small Jesse tree for Advent purposes as well) and amazingly they've worked to keep the dogs out of more trouble than usual.
β½οΈ Spurs celebrated the return of former captain and club all-time great Heung-Min Son, with a really cool mural, and a solid 3-0 Champions League victory over Slavia-Prague. Xavi Simons's offensive uptick has drawn a lot of deserved attention, but the subtle offensive improvement Archie Gray has brought to the Spurs midfield while keeping things defensively solid has been huge.
π It's been a disappointing month for running so far given the warm weather, but hoping that the girls and I will be able to get in a couple of short runs this weekend.
π Think I've mostly wrapped up (pun recognized after I typed it, but not intended) the couple of purchases I needed to make, as Mary does most of the gift coordinating for the whole family. Still need to work on and finish up some gifts though.
Watching
πΊ 1000 Players Simulate Civilization: Rich & Poor πππ I've been watching a lot of Minecraft videos lately, but I wasn't familiar with Ish's work. Absolutely incredible 35M views social experiment, documentary, and collaborative improvisational role play story rolled into one, with an unscripted dramatic arc that was pure cinema. I was immediately sucked into this two hour+ masterpiece and had to share it with my kids the next day (they also loved it).
πΊ Pluribus S1E7 The Gap ππ Absolutely amazing episode with a triple meaning (at least) title featuring some incredible solo acting from both Rhea Seehorn and Carlos-Manuel Vesga on their respective journeys over the longest time span (30+ days) on the show we've seen to date. Manousos's resolve to depend only on himself is incredible, but ultimately self-defeating. It seems clear that he and Carol are going to be very uneasy allies at best when they eventually connect. Also, the DariΓ©n Gap is wildly dangerous but arguably safer than before the joining without all the other humans who might assault, rob, or even kill you during the journey.
πΊ Bald and Bankrupt - ππ Watched an incredible YouTube video where a couple of Adventure Travel YouTubers from England and Greece illegally traversed the DariΓ©n Gap with a bunch of refugees trying to get to the United States and documented the heartbreaking and dangerous journey.
πΊ Bald and Bankrupt ππ Benjamin, the Russian-speaking guy from England, specializes in traveling around the former USSR satellite states and I enjoyed his fairly recent videos on traveling to Moldova and Tajikistan (which I was particularly interested in because of one American-expat I know of who lives there). The people in both countries were incredibly hospitable and friendly, but Tajikistan was way more vibrant and youthful. I had a good laugh when the boy studying English hopefully asked Ben about football and mentioned being a City fan, Chelsea was Ben's curt response (only later did I wonder if his support predated the previous Russian ownership and was purely coincidental) and then he cut the clip.
Playing
- βοΈ Some Minecraft with the kids of course, but a fairly busy week with a variety of other distractions as well. Not too much play or progress on my main solo world either.
- π§ββ Successfully completed Midweek Magic and stayed somewhat on top of my Daily Quests as well. Still need to play quite a bit today though to stay on top of my mastery pass.
Listening
πΆ A variety of Christmas-themed playlists on Spotify for the most part.
π§ββπ The Magic Story Podcast 150: Llorwyn Eclipsed: Episode 1 - Out of the Wood π Accidentally started up on the new Llorwyn set's fiction and enjoyed the opening chapter where a bunch of young Strixhaven students on a field trip fall into a portal and a lot more trouble than they bargained for.