Shadow of the Moon

Hello there!

I hope you have been doing well in the past few months. This was the 42nd week of the year, which means that the end of the year is nigh. Indeed, as the wise Ford Prefect once said, “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime, doubly so.”

Please enjoy this new issue of my newsletter! There is a lot that is new on my site. I have also included several interesting links, some of which you might enjoy.

What’s new with me

New tablet

I used to use an iPad with an Apple Pencil to jot down notes. However, the Pencil broke, and a new one is not cheap. I decided to get a new tablet, an Android this time. I am loving it so far. I will write a post sharing my experience with the new tab soon.

Apprendre le français

One of my goals this year has been to learn more languages. One of the languages I want to get better at is français, that is, French. I had learnt some French in school, but I was not very good at it, and I had forgotten most of it by now anyway. I resumed actively learning French a few months ago.

To improve my writing skills, I will post short essays in French here on my site in a section called À propos de moi, which means About me in French. I have written the first essay already where I briefly introduce myself in French. I will write about interesting events in my life, as well as document my French learning experience, all of it in French. If you are a French speaker, please have a read and let me know if you find mistakes or have suggestions to improve my writing.

New photopoems

This week, I posted two new photopoems: a haiku and a limerick. Here is one of the photos.

New comic

I had drawn a comic about ghosts a long long time ago, during lockdown. The new tablet has inspired me to pick up drawing once again. I have drawn a new comic with the same characters.

Books / TV shows

• I have started reading a novel titled Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. It may not look like it is written in English, but it (mostly) makes sense if you read it out aloud. It takes quite a bit of effort to read and understand it though.
• I have been watching more of British TV panel shows lately. I am currently on Richard Osman’s House of Games (Series 7), Taskmaster (Series 16), Only Connect, and University Challenge (Series 53). These are all immensely entertaining.

Curated content for you

Pictures of the solar eclipse

There was an annular solar eclipse last week that was visible from some parts of the Americas. Thanks to NASA, we get to see images of the eclipse from two unusual perspectives.

• The solar eclipse from the International Space Station
• A picture of the Earth with the shadow of the Moon

YouTube videos

GeoGuessr world cup

GeoGuessr is a game where you are shown a Google Street View image. You must look around for clues (such as landmarks, road signs, the flora and the fauna) to sleuth out your location on the globe. It is a lot of fun. I love playing this game and watching others play it too. One of my favourite players to watch is GeoWizard.

The first ever GeoGuessr world cup happened this week. It was a massive event, with players from all around the world. The matches had live commentary and there was a huge prize pool of over $50,000. It was thrilling to see the pros battle it out.

An epic game of Rock Paper Scissors

CGP Grey has posted a challenge where you must play a series of games of Rock, Paper, Scissors with him. You win if you can win 20 games in a row. Can you devise a strategy to beat him? Will Lady Luck be on your side? See how far you can get. Don’t cheat.

Assuming that you win each game with chance 1/3, the probability that you win twenty games in a row is roughly 1 in 3.5 billion. It is highly unlikely that anyone will able to achieve this feat. Also keep in mind that he uses mind tricks to affect your decision. Regardless of how many games you win, it is a fun game to play. With millions of people expected to play this game, we are in for some juicy statistics.

A poetic review

Cocoon is a new indie puzzle game directed by a designer of the games Limbo and Inside. The gameplay looks stunning, and videogamedunkey’s review is just poetry.

Bat-canned

What happens when Bale Batman fires Pattinson Batman? Watch the two amazing comedians Pete Holmes and Thomas Middleditch in Batman fires The Batman. Also check out another series by Pete Holmes called Ex-Men where he parodies characters from the X-Men series, and Badman where he parodies Batman.

The Holy Grail

It is the 48th and ½ anniversary of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so the movie is rereleasing in theaters once again. Unfortunately, it seems like it will only release in theaters in the United States and for two days only.

A game

The New York Times now has a new game called “Connections”. If you are a viewer of the quiz show Only Connect, you may already be familiar with this game. You are given a wall of sixteen seemingly unrelated words/phrases, and your goal is to divide the clues into four groups of four clues each, each with some connection. This games can get tricky because of red herring, which are clues that may belong to more than one connection. Sometimes, it is difficult to see any connections between the clues at all, while at other times you may find five, or even six, clues satisfying the same connection.

It is fun to play this everyday. I wish they would credit Only Connect for the format of the game. You can only play the current day’s game on The New York Times’ website. There is another website where you can play past puzzles. On this site, you can also create your own puzzles and share them with others.

A song

Beautiful Mind, a new song by Tom Cardy & the magnificent Brian David Gilbert
Watch on YouTube →

And an excerpt

Do you know how far New Zealand is from Australia? The answer may surprise you.

If it would not look too much like showing off, I would tell the reader where New Zealand is; for he is as I was; he thinks he knows. And he thinks he knows where Hertzegovina is; and how to pronounce pariah; and how to use the word unique without exposing himself to the derision of the dictionary. But in truth, he knows none of these things – Excerpt from Chapter XXVI, Following the Equator by Mark Twain

Do you think New Zealand is close to Australia or Asia? Read on…

All people think that New Zealand is close to Australia or Asia, or somewhere, and that you cross to it on a bridge. But that is not so. It is not close to anything, but lies by itself, out in the water. It is nearest to Australia, but still not near. The gap between is very wide. It will be a surprise to the reader, as it was to me, to learn that the distance from Australia to New Zealand is really twelve or thirteen hundred miles, and that there is no bridge. – Another excerpt from Chapter XXVI, Following the Equator

I would recommend that you read the entire chapter, and if possible, the entire book. It’s absolutely hilarious, and you also get to learn a ton of obscure 19th century geography facts.

That’s all for now! See you in the next one. 👋