We had very clear skies earlier this month (or in April? I honestly can’t remember) and I’ve witnessed a couple of Starlink train passes, which got me thinking.
In case you don’t know, Starlink satellites are small, fridge-sized, satellites, launched by Space X. A couple of 🚀 launches happened in April, with each a few dozen satellites on board. After deployment, they travel quite close together in a low path to their final orbit. During that, they are visible by naked eye which it can be quite fascinating. Although I find it interesting, the consequences could be very bad once all 42.000 (!!) satellites are flying around the earth. This video from Alyn explains the situation very well:
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I understand that Space X is trying to solve this problem with sunshades, that theoretically make them less visible. But we won’t know if that works until the next launch some time soon.
Future me, yelling at a flying internet router in space, which will be one of the uses of Starlink.
On some days, I just don‘t really wake up. It‘s grey, windy and rainy outside and I spend most of the day working on my desk. But when I finally manage to work out, my energy level spikes. Here is an illustration:
This is fascinating to me but probably quite boring for most people. To bring you up to speed: The movie Justice League came out in 2017, and it was bad. Like really, really bad. What happened was, Zack Snyder, who directed Man of Steel and Batman v Superman started filming Justice League and had to leave the movie due to a family drama. Joss Wheadon (who directed some of the Avengers movies and many other things) came in to finish the movie. But for whatever reason, a lot got changed. The script got partly rewritten and many scenes got reshot, which is often quite visible in the final film. The complete tone of the film was changed, too. While Man of Steel and Batman v Superman took themselves very serious, JL had many Avenger-esque one liner jokes. The colour palette changed very noticeable from dark to bright and vibrant. The final battle in the trailers was dark and blue-ish, in the final film everything was bright red. There are great videos on YouTube with lots of in-depts comparisons.
Ok, so. Over the last couple of years, now and then, rumours came up that there is indeed a cut of the movie from the time Zack Snyder left, and fans wanted to see it. Zack Snyder himself kept posting hints and photos on his Vero profile (is he the only person left using Vero?).
In the last few months, the voices got louder and louder. Some of the actors itself posted the Hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, and it trended every now and then on Twitter.
In my opinion Man of Steel was an only-okay movie. Batman v Superman wasn’t very good either, but the directors cut actually was a bit better and explained a few plot holes. So why are people going crazy about Justice League? Will it be better than what we got in 2017? We will see! It’s now officially confirmed that it will be released in 2021, possibly as a mini series and not as a four hour long movie.
Yes, I want to see Justice League as Zack Snyder wanted to make it, but I don’t think it will be THE BEST MOVIE IN THE WORLD. So why am I so fascinated with it? Outcries happen all the time, but this time, the internet won. Crazy fandom won, and Warner Bros will spend $20m more on a movie that wasn’t financially successful.
We live in a world of polarities, and this ruckus* is no exception. There is no room for nuance. You can love Zack Snyder or you are a Marvel fanboy. You either love Tesla and Elon Musk or you hate electric vehicles. One wrong turn on twitter and you are in the middle of a fandom war.
* it took me 20 minutes on thesaurus.com to find the right word
To prove my fandom, here is a 25 year old photo of me as Batman.
This morning, I started working wearing my pyjamas. No big deal, I’m working remotely. I thought about all the articles and blog posts that came up recently about remote work. “Get dressed as if you go to an office”, they said. I giggled. How stupid, I thought. I’m working online for years now. I can work in my pyjamas, no problem.
A few minutes later I got up, brushed my teeth, got dressed, went back to my desk as continued working.
I’m German, that means I like beer, cars and … bread. Unfortunately, the bread we can buy here on the island is not good. After a couple of sad, flat and boring loaves of super-easy-no-knead-bread, friends gave me some of their sourdough starter (called Lucretia). What a revelation. So much flavour.
Not gonna lie, not every attempt was successful. Yes, I’ve yelled and cursed while trying to shape way too sticky dough. But it was worth it. I’m still not completely happy with every single loaf, but I’m getting there. And along the way, I’m baking sourdough focaccia, sourdough pizza, sourdough pancakes, sourdough cheesecake – ok, the last one was a lie.
I’m mostly following this recipe from Joshua Weissman, but I’ve watched many more videos and read many more recipes about sourdough bread. I’m looking after my starter meticulously, feeding it in the evenings, tucking it in it’s little blanket and giving it a little good night kiss.
Now, after many attempts, it’s a nice ritual at the beginning of the week. It doesn’t take up much time anymore, I know the steps and the measurements. And the next morning, I’m rewarded with two delicious smelling loaves of fresh bread. Is that how new parents feel? Probably not, but it must be close.
For the record: I started baking at the end of last year when the coronavirus wasn’t a thing that we knew about.
