🥁 Week Notes 074
🗓️ // May 24, 2026 - May 30, 2026
We got our first real thunderstorm of the summer this week and the day before temperatures around 90° F for the first time this year. Doesn't help that air conditioning is still being worked on at work, although our basement location is generally cooler. Fortunately in Operations, where my cubicle is located, we have the option of opening up the data center and partaking in its dedicated air conditioning if necessary and that improved things a lot of Wednesday and Thursday.
⚽️ Spurs picked up the 1-0 win over Everton on the last day of the season to avoid relegation and bring massive relief to supporter everywhere. Hugely disappointing season, but Roberto De Zerbi has brought me renewed hope heading into the summer, and we've already seen movement in the transfer window with Andy Robertson and Marcos Senesi set to bolster the defensive back line.
🥁 My son, Nathan, wrapped up his high school band career on Wednesday at Mt. Spokane High School's annual awards concert. It's been an awesome experience for him and led to a bunch of friendships and personal growth. He even got some individual recognition for his contributions to the percussion section. In retrospect, I really wish we had been a little more on the ball so that he could have done marching band three years instead of two (they'd already been going for a month plus when he enrolled as a sophomore).
⚖️ The three ICE protesters that were being tried in federal court this week for Conspiracy to Impede or Injure ICE on June 11 last year in the confrontation over the illegal detainment (as declared by a judge months after the fact- and a fact barred from the trial) of two legal asylum seekers were found guilty by a 12 member federal jury. Considering the federal prosecutor in the office at the time chose to resign rather than pursue this case tells me all I need to know. It's also incredibly troubling that these three were tried when multiple other people including Ben Stuckart, the asylum seekers' sponsor who initiated the event when he called on people to help protest, were allowed to get significantly reduced plea deals. Did they just have better lawyers?
⚽️ Decided at the last minute to go ahead and take part in the annual soccer scrimmage between L's team and parents and siblings. Had a lot of fun, but in retrospect my biggest complaint is that the ringers that ended up on the girls' side overshadowed them by a wide margin (somebody's younger brother was their best offensive player and scored like three goals, but had absolutely zero link up play or assist game). Ended up quite sore afterward, but not injured other than the bridge of my nose being a bit sore from a direct shot to my sunglasses and forehead.
Playing
🧙♂ Continued drafting Secrets of Strixhaven this week with okay success and somehow completely missed midweek Magic. Still have an outside shot to reach Platinum in Constructed, but probably won't make it in Draft.
⚽️🎮 Ahead of the World Cup I'm planning to do some Football Manager play throughs with underdog teams. I might start with Egypt since Spokane will be hosting them during the group stage.
Watching
📺 Shangri-La Frontier 👍👍 Started watching Sunday on a whim while waiting for Blue Lock season 2 to drop and binged almost the entire first season. Really enjoyed the near future virtual reality gaming premise, "trash-gamer" protagonist and the surrounding cast of characters.
📺 For All Mankind S5E10: This Land is Our Land 👍👍 Exciting and generally satisfying ending to a season that was good, but really mishandled Dev Ayesa and his part in the automation subplot. Enjoyed the Russian character redemption arcs and very curious to see where we go from here with Alex and Avery carrying on the Baldwin and Stevens legacies into the sixth and final season.
Listening
- ⚽️🎙 Listened to tons of end of season Spurs recap podcasts this season and there's already a ton of podcast discussion as well. In some way summer is the busiest season for Spurs coverage and discussion
Projects
🤖 Took a first stab at some basketball simulation experiments with Claude (Sonnett 4.6) using Lua and the LOVE2D platform and came away hugely impressed with what the code generated and the gaming system. Looking forward to further experiments, testing, and planning for the overall project I have in mind.
⚽️ I've been meaning to wrap up the Spurs season for completions sake on AxodysFC, but I'm pretty well out of the habit. We'll see if it happens this week now that I've got everything charged up and have no more excuses.