---
title: 'Vibe Check #17'
date: 2023-12-17T18:57:55.431Z
slug: 2023-12-17-vibe-check-17
author: Thomas Wilson
tags: 
    - vibe-check

---
December 2023's Vibe Check was started on gloomy December morning, and finished a fortnight later on cosy December night.  Context changes things.  Winds and rain (both freezing) stopped what *was* a mild winter.  "Winter's not too bad" I thought, like someone who's never lived through a winter.  We're into the worst six weeks of the year - three weeks from the solar solstice.  It's dark by four in the afternoon, and that's still got to get earlier for a while.

Anyway, how was November?  I had three _wonderful_ weeks of unemployment.  I had planned to spend the time breaking the back (pun intended?) of my wedding suit jacket.  But I spent my time in much more worthy pursuits: taking cycle rides in the bright November sun, admiring the world around me as autumn shifts the hue slider into 'ultra-vibrant', eating well, and seeing friends and family.  Then I crammed a lot of suit making into four days at the end. 

The suit jacket is going well though, thanks for asking.  I am part of an online cohort course with the [Tailoring Academy](https://www.tailoringacademy.co.uk/).  Until this course I was  wholly a self-taught sewist.  Being able to self-teach is one of the few fulfilled promises of the internet.  If I wanted to make  women's garments, not bespoke menswear, I think there would be a lot more material for me to self-teach with.  So this course has been a great journey, giving a chance to hear from trained and experienced professionals.   I have my moments, the work goes slow at times, but I couldn't do work of this type or this quality by myself.  I feel really grateful for that.  Not that I don't have panicky moments.

I definitely have noticed that I am not sewing for "fun".  I am sewing a Serious Business™️ garment with a strict deadline.  And I'm also choosing not to share photos or details with most people.  So I'm doing a lot of work "just" for me.

Professionally, I started a new job this month - I am now a senior software engineer at [Laka](https://www.laka.co.uk), who run bicycle insurance with a collective pricing model.  I am in my third week, so still very actively learning about the landscape: the people, processes, problems, business, customers, and all the good stuff.  

I've not started a new job in three years, and I feel a little out of practice.  The shift from Head-Of into Senior has been a gear shift.  Not a good thing or a bad thing, just a transition.  I _wanted_ some change.

Perhaps the thing I have enjoyed most about the cold snap is my return to video games.  I've cracked out the Steam Deck, which is now functionally a handheld Balders Gate III machine.  The day after I wrote the first draft for this blog post, Balders Gate won the Game Awards "Games of the Year" award.  Friends,  get it.  It's a good game.  It's "go to bed at midnight" and "think about it when you're not playing it" good. 

Anyway: Some films I have watched this month: 

- [Quantum of Solace](https://letterboxd.com/film/quantum-of-solace/): I want to watch James Bond on the sofa and eat unsophisticated food, and have a drink.  This film met the brief.  Honestly very good, I see why the reviews were positive.
- [When Harry Met Sally](https://letterboxd.com/film/when-harry-met-sally/):  It's a cult classic and I think I was a bit ashamed that I hadn't seen it before (I _love_ rom coms).  Taken in context, it's a very good film.  It's cosy Christmas fare.  Another sofa-supper-gin combo winner.
- [Shiva Baby](https://letterboxd.com/film/shiva-baby-2020/):  A bit of whiplash from cosy Christmas fare.  This film captures anxiety in a way that made me _so_ uncomfortable as a viewer, which is a good thing (?).  It's got a fitting soundtrack of violins that made me curl up into myself whenever it started.  It's a good film but not a good time. 
- [Nimona](https://letterboxd.com/film/nimona-2023/):  I think  dismissed this as a children's film when I saw it on Netflix.  I was wrong.  You should watch this movie.  It's a little on the childish side, but it's flirty with a lot of queer and gender issues without being a film "about" queer and gender issues.  After some light reading, the film itself almost didn't get made, and I am just so grateful that it did.  Funny and heartwarming, queer, and not patronising.  Checks across the board.  There's a [really great piece on Letterboxd from some of the creators here](https://letterboxd.com/journal/nimona-interview-nick-bruno-troy-quane-nd-stevenson/).
- [Quiz Lady](https://letterboxd.com/film/quiz-lady/): I enjoyed this film.  It knew what it was, it was tight, and it had some very funny moments.  Both the leads playing against type, and just good fun.




