Finished reading: The Final Empire: Mistborn Book One by Brandon Sanderson 📚

A very easy read; almost a young adult book. And so many of the characters are just so nice. My favorite character was Shan, who we all hate, but who created some needed conflict.

I love that Nolan Bushnell says his favorite Atari game is Tempest. I loved that game. I couldn’t get into Stargate–so many buttons!–but Tempest was a great game with simple controls.

So many online reviewers think I’m buying clicky keyboard switches for the sound. I couldn’t care less about the sound. They just feel better than non-clicky tactile switches.

I saw Peter Bogdanovich’s 1972 film, At Long Last Love last night. It was a huge flop in its time, on the order of Ishtar or Heaven’s Gate. It’s currently undergoing a reevaluation, hampered mainly by the fact it’s so hard to see (apparently the rights to the Cole Porter songs are a little suspect). See Richard Brody’s 2018 New Yorker review.

I was lucky to attend a full-house screening at the Austin Film Society. In a year of Hair and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, it must have felt like it cowardly avoided the current culture. But also avoided some of the problematic issues of 30s musicals and gave the women some agency.

Tonight we saw What’s Up Doc? in a theater full of people. It’s the best way to watch a comedy, and some 50 years after it was made, this one still delivers.

The eclipse from an iPhone camera pointed at a telescope eyepiece.

It’s looking more and more likely that I’ll have to give up on Twitter completely.

Saw The Automat at AFS last night. I knew of automats, but I didn’t realize how grand they were. The floors and tables were white marble; the machines polished chrome. Moreover, they welcomed an economically and ethnically diverse crowd.

🎥

My play date arrived!

ACM members will no longer get access to O’Reilly’s Safari books after July 1. It was a good deal while it lasted. I’ll go back to buying individual books, because it’s not worth $400/year to me.