Facemasked Vigilante

[darksolez]

 This week, in Coronavirus Land: a significant decrease in the number of cases, deaths, and patients in ICU. True, the Mater Hospital in Dublin, presumably in an effort to uphold its reputation, did not admit to a great number of cases that had occurred there since March. And while the restrictions are going to be eased on Monday, this doesn't mean the end of lockdown. Indeed, should we treat it as such, then we only increase the likelihood that lockdown will be reintroduced, later on down the line. Think of the people who are working in these sectors (including my dad, a horticulturist), and don't bombard these businesses and companies on Monday morning. Have a bit of sense, only go out if you need to, and don't be some loser gobshite wandering around B & Q or Soundstore on a Tuesday afternoon. 

• Reading. Okay, so I've returned to Faulkner at last, beginning with The Sound and the Fury (1929). I'll read it through once, unaided by a notebook, and then I'll read through it again, making observations as I go. Around six months after my PhD, I actually ditched most of my research notes. This was based on three lines of thought: a) if I was to return to academia, I would like to start all over again, on a smaller scale, researching one book or theory at a time; b) my thesis is the product of all that research and therefore constitutes the best guide to those years of notes anyway; and c) making a clean break with college life was rather motivating and exciting. Faulkner's books are eternal, in any case, and as long as I have those, a laptop, and something to write on, the possibilities are endless. Still reading Empire, Retro Gamer, Edge, and Total Film magazines

• Gaming. Lo and behold: I've actually managed to complete a game since we last spoke. Another Code: Two Memories (2005) was a short-but-sweet game developed by the wonderful team at Cing (a defunct company now, sadly). Now that I've completed the DS game, I would like to return to the Wii sequel, which I have already completed: the characters are fleshed-out much more substantially in that game, if I remember correctly. I also purchased Pokémon Yellow (1998) and Pokémon Silver (1999). If you remember, the latter game I had recently missed out on in a photo finish eBay auction. I managed to find another copy, however, and was able to buy that without any head-wrecking bidding war

• Films and TV. Some more Spider-Man, specifically Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004). Raimi's films are probably the best  superhero movies ever committed to celluloid: they're action-packed, romantic, poignant, and funny. Even the third film is not as bad as many make out: it's messy, but the performances are strong and it's still entertaining. I would highly recommend watching them if you haven't already. I suppose there's a lot of geeky teenagers/twentysomethings that can relate to Stan Lee's hero, and I certainly see shades of myself in Peter Parker. I was never bullied, and I had several friends, but I was nerdy, awkward, and terrible around girls, in particular. I even felt different to my friends: I wasn't sociable, and I certainly wasn't what would be described as cool. It was only when I started college that I began to own it a bit more. So yeah - I can relate to those secondary school embarrassments. The Spider-Man films are also watching if you'd like an insight into how I look at Natalie: it's how Peter feels about MJ

• People. Everyone's still okay at home, and I'm doing my best to look out for my friends and Natalie, as well

• Writing. I haven't returned to my Pokémon story yet, but I have the best of intentions

• Work. Those 9-hour days are rather arduous. Thank goodness it's the weekend, and you get to read these "fascinating" blog posts. Bated breath and all that, right?