Techforevil - Techforevil 🤖

January 2025 | monthnote

Is it even a new year if I don't make some doomed attempt at weeknotes?

Random notes inc work stuff

Vicky dying still does not feel real. I feel privileged I got to spend some siginifcant time with her when she came along to Conferencia Agile Spain (like most people I primarily knew her from her writing and online presence, altho we met briefly a few times when we overlapped at GDS) and was hoping to follow up on a few things we talked about at GovCamp but equally it means I can't just indulge in my full-on denial mode...

Worked through xmas-ny break like usual. It's usually a chill time unless I am in this department, where apart from the ongoing time-sensitive work lots of random emergencies happened. So glad I'm off for a couple of weeks now, I've not had a proper break since Japan in March/April and I'm shattered.

Overall so much random and weird shit was going down at the end of Dec / start of Jan (including both me and my flatmate having very strange dreams) I was beginning to suspect a gas leak... 🙃

Got extended till Feb 2026 in my current contract. 🎉 It should make getting a mortgage easier, now just fingers crossed that the property does not get down valued like the last one and my sellers find something they want to purchase soon.

Quite a lot of change at work, lots of it quite neatly coinciding with my leave. The migration from GOV.UK PaaS my team was prepping for for the last year got delayed last minute and now I'll be missing it but I'm sure it will all go fine.

Booked in with Keemee for a tatoo just after the holiday. 🌺

Govcamp happened and I was mostly helping our rather than going to sessions. :o Good times as usual, felt particularly busy this year for a 'normal edition'. I really like that we finally have a bit of a Teacamp return with TransformGov Talks and also sort of DataBites! \o/

Spanish classes are back. I've not signed up for Korean yet, there's probably a fair bit I can do to brush up close to my former level by myself if I just find the motivation. :s

Watched

Lots of Taskmaster, the perfect crocheting accompaniment (see below)

Nosferatu - the scene in castle 100% played like something from What We Do in the Shadows, I'm not even sorry for giggling throughout. 😔 Needed more Dafoe hamming it up. I was shocked the cat was not named in the credits - breaking a sacred tradition of cinema. 4 stars.

Presence - not a horror, not my kinda thing otherwise (family drama). The central gimmick could be fun in an actual horror movie tho. Another one they kind of employ ('not being bound by time') is sort of redundant because the progression is linear (I suppose otherwise the twist would be ruined). The marketing vs movie kind of fell in place for me when I realised it's the same distributor as Longlegs which was also underwhelming.

Late Feb / March seems staked with releases I want to see: The Monkey, The Last Showgirl, Mickey 17, Death of Unicorn... probably more. Those are just the trailers I saw before Presence lol.

Played

This is probably between Dec-Jan rather than strictly Jan.

Fledgling Manor - Stefan's route only, basically not sure how the other ones can top it so I lost interest but it seems all need to be played to resolve some plot points so maybe in the future...

Sorry We're Closed - I thought this would be a VN but it's a survival horror and I find the shooting stressful haha. You can say I hould have read the description before buying but I was blinded by the art. -_-

bits of Arco (love the mechanics and the story is good but I got stuck at an encounter I can't pass but I'm too stubborn to back out and return at higher level), Animal Well, Stanley Parable (at very long last - yes, it's as good as I thought it would be), I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (tbh the mechanics were more interesting to me in a more down to earth setting of Growing Up), Cryptmaster (Steamdeck does not work well for this).

Waiting for Yakuza in Hawaii, more Hades 2 patches, next Deltarune chapters, and Ghost of Tsushima sequel + Assassins Creed Japan (open world map marker slop > therapy, don't @ me).

Makes

Decima is still closed so no pottery. I've probably forgotten 100% of what little I could do. I'll probably do a course at Mudgang when I'm back to return to some working level and then get either a studio space subscription from them or Turning Earth near Haggerston, depending on how the flat buying is coming along.

In the meantime I have finally sort of learned how to crochet. I got a kit from TOFT to make a black and white cat, resembling Bella a bit. I tried crocheting before a few times (I learned very basic knitting during lockdown and have half a pride blanket from Wool & the Gang somewhere) but it always ended up with me crying, once in public. 🥲 The kit said it's level 2 so I got another level 1 one (labrador)

TBF they are not that different, cat requires changing colours which is actually not hard if you get over the initial barrier to entry of crocheting anything at all. 😬 The cat is also bigger which makes the process much less fiddly.

TOFT instructions are quite barebones and don't have any interim 'this is what it should look like by now' pics which as a complete beginner is quite rough, but I think I managed to make decent approximations of the cover images. I made some changes to the cat on purpose.

Belly disagrees.

The biggest issue I have with TOFT kits so far is that the amount of yarn provided leaves no room for errors or even leaving longer tails. With both patterns I made mistakes (crocheting with dark yarn is particularly hard going if you don't know wtf you're doing) and the yarn started fraying real bad so I had to chop it. I actually had to buy more yarn (which doesn't exactly match...) to finish the cat at all. :(

I got yarn and patterns for two sheep (Seth and Tobias) from them to keep busy on the upcoming flights so we'll see how consistent this minimalism is. 😬

Anyway then I went crazy at John Lewis sales so I have lots of materials now, just need patterns and ideas. The first one is not going particularly well and I'm losing my patience sligtly, might swap to something else.

またね! ✌️😗

Masterful Disco Elysium gameplay: spend 8 hours having your character obsess over their own sexuality. The only in game reward is that you get your detective partner to admit he's gay. Win

I enjoy needle felting A LOT. There's just something about stabbing things into shape that is very satisfying, and I think it's the closest fibre art to pottery in that I can just fuck around and find out, add a bit of stuff it things feel off etc. 😗

Kit link: https://www.themakerss.co.uk/products/sewing-mouse-small-needle-felt-kit

Anyway, I started this fella at a Stitch Festival last week. Not gonna lie, the little sewing machine was a major factor why I signed up. 😂 And the glasses!?

The workshop was a bit rushed but the instructions were pretty clear and I'm happy with the end result of course. : )

Progress pics:

Bella is helping me test one of my Xmas gifts (an apron for pottering).

This has now been finished and gifted so it’s rebloggable on main! 🎉

I am mystified about quite a few aspects of this, mostly the wonkiness given that I don’t _think_ I missed any stitches while turning and even blocked it. 🤨

Anyway, the recipient seemed very happy with it, and it’s only for a baby so the most important aspect is washability haha.

am i fast enough to bash out half a 🏳️‍🌈 blanket on a train to + from Manchester? not quite yet (purple missing + edges) but pretty good progress anyway

pattern: https://hobbii.co.uk/rainbow-baby-blanket

And as it’s Yasujirô Ozu’s Birthday (and Deathday) what better excuse to repost this old classic from days of yore - the many (but not all) teapots of Ozu!

Maybe I should do a little Butler / automation for Trello training…

Has Peter Strickland watched this immediately before sitting down and writing Flux Gourmet??

Sadie the Sailor Dog from Ricorumi

Two main things from this one I'd like to improve on are:

colour changes - I managed to hide the worst of the jumper and life ring stripes at the back or inside but for the future, making them a bit tidier wouldn't hurt. 😬

making pom poms. It looks horrid and falls apart when looked at.

I liked this one much more than Toft patterns! Very little sewing but what I did do (ears) turned nicer than expected. I didn't have suitable safety eyes when I made this but actually it doesn't look too bad.

I took it to my Spanish class to show to someone who also crochets (mostly flat things) and everyone loved her. 😌

(Shit lighting but I could not be bothered to retake pics. : ))