The World: Somehow the week seemed to go by both quickly and agonizingly slowly, mostly because of the US presidential elections held this week. Slowly because after the initial burst of results on Tuesday night (US time), the remaining states’ results trickled in very slowly. Quickly because much time was spent doomscrolling and refreshing election-related updates. I think the world collectively breathed a sigh of relief this weekend as the US networks finally called the race for former VP and now president-elect Joe Biden. Celebrations on the streets in many cities in the US, notably New York and Philadelphia. Trump still won’t concede and vows legal action, but that seems unlikely to go anywhere except make him look immature and pathetic.
Biden isn’t even the best or most exciting candidate, and it’s still to be seen how he handles crises like the BLM and police brutality stuff and even healthcare, but at the very least the US will now have a coherent leader and hopefully will be able to address the pandemic better. I would guess that Harris as VP will ultimately end up the more historic win. But I imagine the celebrations are less about Biden winning and more about Trump losing. It must be weird to be a fanatic Trump supporter seeing all these people celebrating his loss. He still got a lot of votes - America remains a deeply divided nation, but at least under Biden there’s a chance of that being rectified at least a little bit.
I have written a lot of words on this topic, considering I’m not an American. My stakes in this are a bit lower, but I still found myself glued to the ever-changing blue and red numbers. The US leadership affects the rest of the world of course, especially in terms of climate change and multilateralism moving forward, so it’s serious business. But I admit, I also enjoyed the drama and the memes. I had more than one chat groups where some of the members were living in the US, and let me tell you, they were super active during this week.
My favorite part of all this drama has to be the whole Four Seasons Total Landscaping brouhaha. Basically, Trump announced his lawyers would have a press conferencce at Four Seasons in Philadelphia, then later corrected himself saying it wasn’t the Four Seasons Hotel, but rather Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Basically a parking lot in an industrial area, next to a dildo shop. It smacks of incompetence and miscoordination of the highest order. It’s the kind of comedy that TV shows just can’t make up, proving indeed that reality can be stranger (and funnier) than fiction.
Trump’s loss is a repudiation of his style of populist, lying leadership. I wish I could say I was as hopeful for similar positive change in my own country in two years, but that remains to be seen…
Ok, back to my stuff lol.
Server migration update: Today, I’ve closed my account at the old hosting provider, so there is no more turning back!
Gaming: I started and finished Super Mario Odyssey! Just about a week, but that was main game only, finished with a bit over 400 moons. (I believe I can get up to 999 in the game?). Immediately proceeding into the post-game, since I only borrowed this game, so I want to get as close to completion as I can before I have to give it back. That being said, there are some moons gated behind annoying minigames like jump rope, RC racing, etc, which I’m not sure I’d have the patience to grind through, but we’ll see. After Odyssey, I’ll take it easy on the Switch games for a little bit, though I am already considering getting either Fire Emblem or the new Paper Mario. Would be good to get back to an RPG after all these platformers.
Watching Lately: About halfway through The Boys season 2 now. More thoughts when I finish I guess? I thought about watching a Sean Connery James Bond flick when he died this week, but neither Netflix nor Prime had any, sadface.
Got a new pair of glasses last Wednesday, but up to today my eyes still feel like they are adjusting.
I did not start Nanowrimo. I started trying something else instead, not sure if it’s gonna go anywhere though.
The thing I was anxious about last week never pushed through. I should care less about things!
Looking forward to: Kaladesh Remastered comes out next week on Arena, so there’s that!
See Also