Tom Wilson

Spotify Wrapped summary

I know I listen to a lot of Europop but I have literally no idea what Italo Dance is.

Wicked: The Good, the Bad, and the Uglical

Also lots of cattle.

So I'm just back from Wicked For Good, and my flaming hot take is that it is a Western movie in disguise.

Walking away into the sunset, showdown in the middle of a morally questionable town, the noble outlaw, the racist sheriff etc. The tropes are all there!

This bit will not make sense to anyone who was not on Youtube roughly ten-fifteen years ago.

"The Rest is Science, Michael here with Hannah Fry. Fry. The act of cooking that typically utilises a pan and a hob. Hob. Hub. A place that things collect. Collect. Connect. CONNECTION. How things relate to one another. Did you know there are more atoms in the universe than goalhanger podcasts?"

Social democrats basically believe that in perfect societal conditions everyone tempted by extreme ideologies or behaviour would be a social democrat too. It's a very paternal instinct, and for many people it is obviously the case. But for many it just isn't and many don't know how to handle that.

People like explanations with counter measures, something can always be done to prevent the cause behind bad things, not just the events themselves. But for a large number of people their alienation is of their own making and some acts of extremism would be happening in harmonious societies too.

What they will actually do is probably Fleur East and move Anton as the nice judge slot is easier to fill.

Should go a bit left field with it so its not accused of being an imperfect copy by going for previous winners. Stacey Dooley and Bill Bailey.

Ring Doorbells being affected by the AWS shutdown is vindication for every canvasser.

Silksong is a harder game than its predecessor but by the end I was better at it than I was at the end of Hollow Knight, which speaks volumes for how well designed it is.

Also Sherma is the best ever NPC.

I have finally 100%ed Silksong and can now say unequivocally that it's better than Hollow Knight by one notch across every single metric and all the complaints about difficulty, runbacks, diagonal pogo, currency etc etc etc are not only not a problem, but actively make the game better.

The entire democratic world did not swing against their respective governing parties last year because of local leadership issues. Macro factors clearly have a huge impact on livelihoods. But blaming everything on a domestic government level empowers people who ignore this the most.

Has government mismanagement led to peoples lives getting worse over the last 15 years? Obviously yes.

Is the government *solely* responsible for why an older working class retiree feels dissatisfied or alienated from society despite the entire state being geared towards their demographic? No.

Apropos of mostly nothing, I do feel like when nobody in politics talks about personal responsibility, and the broad right has truly given up on it, the gap between what is achievable in politics and what people think is achievable in politics just balloons beyond management and populism explodes.

Big news events really didn't factor very much.

Slightly timeless number six would be not coming out until I was 18.

What five events defined your childhood? In chronological order

Developing an acute addiction to buying Yugioh cards
Going to a melting pot comp school
Beginning drumming lessons
New Labour's School Rebuilding Programme
Local music centre being threatened with closure from Osborne austerity

The big difference is how much time you think you'd be allowed by an impatient electorate who don't all want the same thing and how your comms has to adjust and how you balance short term action and long term planning as a result.

I very much think the Labour bit of Labour YIMBYism demands a synergy of the two, community building not just place building. New Towns sit in the middle, but also requires long term thinking on how you revive sense of community in working class places previously written off suffering social probs.

It's incredibly mean, but in a way I actually enjoy.

Having got to the end of Act 2, can now confidently say the Silksong is a masterpiece by the way.

Apparently not!

When we say things could always be worse. They really, really could.

News story screenshot of a data centre fire in South Korea that wiped out 858TB of government data

South Korea really seems intent on putting all other world political domestic crises in perspective.

On the bright side I have a fair few pints to call in

Sunak genuinely likeable in person and don't get the vibe anyone at the end of the day blamed him specifically for the result. Bad opening hands are easier to fuck up with.

(Don't think they were meant to tell me where the request had come from)

They cancelled the moment I said yes!