The past few Vibe Checks happened between one-to-ten days after the month ended. Today it happens a few days preceding. The preparedness.
October 2023 has been a delightful month. We've had our first few proper cold-snaps (the heating isn't yet on a schedule, though); the astonishing bright oranges and deep reds of autumn have appeared; getting cosy on the sofa with a book or a film has made a return; the wool of my garments is getting thicker.
This is also my last month at my current job (Head of Software Engineering at Oxwash). I have known I am leaving for the last three months, and it has got notably harder to be invested in the long-term and professional future of the company. I have tried my hardest to fight it, but it's felt inevitable - especially in the last week, to put less conviction behind my beliefs and stubbornness in my attitudes. It's a reminder to remain empathetic to all the outgoing employees I have worked with before, who you see slowly retreat from the performance in a job.
I love the seasons, yo - I could go on about how Autumn feels like the beginning of a year. Spiritually this is the time I emerge from the short-sighted hedonistic fun of summer, of drinking wine with lunch and/or dinner, and of travelling around. How it's now about being sensible, about asking questions about who I want to be in six months when we begin to emerge from the cocoon of indoors time. About how we only notice the full-bodied presence of life and summer when it starts to die back in dramatic colour. Harsh winds rush the darling buds of May and all that.
Instead I think I just want to tell you about some of the things I watched and read this month:
Some of the films I have watched this month are:
- About Time - a pretty unique, charming, British Rom-Com that I have seen way back in my past but thoroughly enjoyed a rewatch in the cold-outside-warm-inside combination.
- The Babysitter - a horror-comedy with a bit more miss-than hit on the timing (it felt like a 45min film dragged out with lingering shots and loose timing). But it's 👻 Spooky Season so it's been in-fitting. I am someone who doesn't like horror films, and I am living with someone who doesn't like horror films. This is about as close as we're getting in this household.
It's also been a pretty book-ish month, as I finished off a few lingering books from my currently reading shelf:
- Babylon's Ashes by James S. A. Corey. This is the sixth book in The Expanse series by the author (who is actually two authors, co-writing). I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and this series - and as it was Published in 2016, I also think you can see ripples of concern about misinformation and social media, and celebrity-as-identity slipping in. What felt like a charming techno-utopian series feels like it's becoming greyer and murkier. It's a good evolution.
- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Grams. I was rec'd this by a couple of people over summer, and I didn't get around to it. I am so glad to have read this book which is a debut novel from the author. Goodness gracious, the voice and tone, the sharpness and love for people. This is a book worth reading - it's not going to shift your world view but it's refreshing. At times it feels like the good parts of Pratchett (which I say as someone who hasn't quite got Pratchett yet).
- The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith (who is JK Rowling). Ah, the age of "can we separate artist from art?" Conversation? The thing about Rowling is that I just think she's a vector for dehumanising and delegitimising trans people. But, on the other hand, her Cormoran Strike novels are compatible with what I like: a great central mystery and excellent characters and relationships. This book carried on that tradition, and I am genuinely glad that I read it. I carried it with a donation to Stonewall, to double the cost of the book - so that Rowling benefited less than the people fighting against her inequity.
- Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby. Man, this woman writes essays, yo. She writes "laugh-out-loud-but-quietly to my book as I read next to my sleeping partner" essays. I can't big-quotes "relate" to what she's writing about - she grew up very differently to me, and sees the world very differently. But this one essay she wrote about having an anaphylactic shock and almost dying at the hospital was this third-person, profound experience that gives you an insight into her worldview as she faces genuinely-almost-death. I love everything this woman has ever written, and this book sits proudly dog-eared on my shelf for when I next need a cosy read.