Q2 2026 notes
Halfway through the year already and it is officially summer.
π Blog:
Obviously quite limited, with only 3 posts since last time, though I am pretty pleased with all of them as they allowed to go a bit deeper in some things I love like spaghetti westerns and Isabelle Huppert. The Calvin & Hobbes was also mentioned in the podcast The Magic of Calvin and Hobbes in episode 21. Also not a whole lot has happened to shortsfreviews.com, but I am okay with that. It is there if I encounter a story I genuinely want to share some words about.
ποΈ Movies:
Still the activity that gets the most dedicated hours and the past months I have verged more into rewatching some personal favourites, such as Showgirls, Hard Boiled, Aladdin, Django, Blade Runner 2049, Arrival and Ben Hur. Highlights of new watches were A Tale of Springtime, Desk Set, The Blue Angel, Shanghai Express, Il cittadino si ribella, Slow West and Les Parapluies de Cherbourg. Not really focusing on anything specific at the moment, other than enjoying the breadth of the cinematic world with a positive mindset.
πΉοΈ Gaming:
I got Super Mario Odyssey for the Nintendo Switch and it has been an absolute blast. I enjoyed playing Kirby and the Forgotten Land with my youngest daughter and got the itch for a classic 3D platformer in the style of Super Mario 64. And Odyssey fits that perfectly. Right balance of exploration, puzzles, platform mechanics and a decent level of challenge while never feeling you get stuck.
πΌ Work:
Plenty of things to do, especially up to the summer period where we really wanted to finalise some projects, though that didnβt quite happen. The amount of ad-hoc work has definitely increased, reducing overall time for focus. There has also been some layoffs due to less than stellar financials, which are always a pain to handle. Thankfully none in my direct team was part of that, but it is always sad to see co-workers you are around with every day at the office being let go.
π¨βπ©βπ§βπ§ Life:
My oldest daughter is starting in a new school after summer and she has already been warmly welcomed by her new classmates, which was great to see. Otherwise looking forward to the summer vacation where we are doing a repeat of last year. Last week I attended Copenhell again for two days, with some great highlights with Iron Maiden, Blood Fire Death and Inhuman Nature (not my videos, I was up front in the moshpits). It was right during the heatwave with temperatures around 30, but we managed with plenty of liquids πΊ.