The same procedure as every year, James.
It's the end of the year, and maybe movie critic is my true calling. Anyways, I'm making it your problem. This will contain spoilers for the new 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' movie.
Same procedure as every year?
In, germany, on new years eve (called 'Silvester'), it's a tradition to watch 'The 90th birthday', also called 'Dinner for One'. It's a 17 minute long sketch in which Miss Sophie celebrates her 90th birthday. She invited her 4 friends as guests. Sadly, all of her friends have long been dead, the last having died about 25 years ago. So she sits alone at the table whilst her butler James impersonates all of them, one after another. The butler also makes a toast and drinks for all of them between each dish, so he gets more and more drunk as he walks around the table to impersonate the guests. Before serving each dish, he asks Miss Sophie, 'Same procedure as every year?' and she responds with, 'The same procedure as every year, James.'. The sketch is in English and in Black and White. Five out of 5 stars from me for nostalgia alone!
How much is 12?
In a riveting plot twist, my new years resolution is the same as this year! This year, I wanted to write 12 pieces, one every month. I think I have now told that to literally everyone I know.
With 10, including this one, I got close, so 12 will be my goal for next year again. I also want to write more about iOS and tech, but for now, we are limited to movie reviews.
I'd be interested in trying to solve some more advent of code problems. I find they are quite fun, and there are many of them. Then again, I am unsure if that would be interesting.
Funny enough, I tell myself every year in December that this year I will participate in Advent of Code. This year, I even got encouragement in the form of 'It's only 12, so you can get two days for one!'. But, same procedure as every year! I solved the first one and then forgot about the rest until after christmas.
Do you have LinkedIn?
Another resolution is that I want to spend less time staring at a screen. I know that this is kind of challenging with 'computer' being sort of my job/university major. My screen time (on my phone) needs to be lower. It feels a bit like Yo-Yo-ing. My screen time goes down; then it jumps back up again. There seems to be nothing I can do to gain a long term healthy relationship with it. I deleted instagram and have not been on there for over a year now. A couple of days ago, I caved and installed the app again to watch a video a friend of mine made. I have since deleted the app again. During the year, I did not miss any of the content from Instagram. The content is fun, but it's a bit like sugar; it just makes you hungry for more. The only thing I miss is my friends. I know that a lot (if not all) of my international friends are on Instagram or other social media, and I feel I lose contact with them by not seeing what they are up to. Yes, I could text. Now, every time someone wants to connect with me, I have to ask, 'Are you on LinkedIn?'. I feel less and less a part of the iOS/Swift Community, simply by not seeing them or what they are up to anymore.
I had actually deleted the apps and stayed off social media for a couple of months before. In 2023, I had been off social media for about 4 months, I think. Then I went to a Swift Conference and reinstalled it to be more in contact with my newly made friends and the Swift Community. From there, it went exactly as it had this past week. I installed the app, and it relatively quickly spiralled so much out of control that deleting all of them was the only solution.
As a fun fact: the average american spends 4.5 hours a day on their phone.
Where have I seen this before?
Earlier today, I went to see 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' (The third 'Avatar' movie). I really liked the first movie, but that one was released ages ago, and I have developed a certain nostalgia when watching it. For the record, I still believe that more than 120 min is too long. Maybe that's the TikTok-Brain talking. The newest Avatar is three hours long. Long Operas often have an intermission between acts, there are drinks and snacks available. Maybe we should add those to movies as well; the cinema could sell some more ad-spaces, and I can decide to leave the cinema early if I don't like the movie.
What happens in the first Avatar? This might be a spoiler, but there are blue people, and they live on a planet. That planet also has some rare material that sells well on Earth; therefore, it must be mined. To do so, all the blue people must be removed. Therefore, the military is needed. One military guy is sent to live with the blue people and learn their ways to help the military clear the space for mining. He promptly falls in love with the blue people and the woman tasked with teaching him about them. He fights alongside them to protect their forest and homeworld. It's nearly completely CGI, and I feel it's beautiful to watch. The planet is truly fascinating, with all sorts of fluorescent flora and fauna. It's a mix of explosions and nature documentary.
I really did not like the second movie. It starts off by introducing us to all the same characters again. Same villain, same good guys, same planet. The movie then changes locations, no longer set in a forest, but instead along the coast, featuring a flotilla of fun, fluorescent aquatic animals. Our hero's forest family now lives with one of the worlds water people. At this point, the plot pauses, and we watch a nature documentary about the colourful coastal creatures for about an hour. I enjoyed this part. Sadly, the movie then remembers that it had a plot. So we learn that the rare material found in the forest is worthless compared to the wealth waiting in the worlds whales. So we fight the same soldiers for the same reason again; but this time, it's in the water. So it's completely different. We cannot have new ideas if we still have old ones at home.
The third movie then decides, what if we take the same heroes and the same villains again, along with the same reasoning in the same locations. The movie boldly asks the question, 'Will they notice if we make the same movie again?'. The big new thing is that the movie is filmed/CGI-ed at different frame rates. However, that makes the whole movie seem as if it has video game cutscenes. When the movie started in the cinema, I thought, 'They are making an ad for the same-named computer game; how clever!'. But no, that is not the PC game, as rendered by my laptop; that is the beginning of the movie. To be fair, the middle of the movie looks absolutely amazing; I really enjoyed watching that. They show some awesome aerial shots and have some really nice underwater shots as well. The story? The humans are still hunting the conveniently monetizable mammals; the blue people want to protect the planet (they are pacifists, though). The humans are allying themselves with another of the blue people factions, the fire and ash people. The story seems to set itself up again and again, returning to the status from the beginning time and time again. This is also how the movie ends. It is ambiguous about what happens to both the heroes and the villains. I assume the fourth installment will not resolve that, so we will watch the same movie again and again. It gets three stars out of five from me. 'It's better than the last one and quite pretty to look at'.
the end
My year has also had some repetitions of the last few years. Like every year, I cut my hair short, only to wish to grow it longer again. Like last year, I moved abroad. Like last year, I was fortunate enough to find many new friends in my new home abroad. I am extremely grateful for all the amazing people I've met this year. Many of whom I had the pleasure of working with, like at 'Students, Swift, Stars' this year. This year has been full of both new beginnings and goodbyes. Going from graduating with a bachelors degree to leaving my job at VWCV, to starting my masters degree and my internship at The LEGO Group, there were and are so many friends with whom I hope to spend more time. I've learned so many things and hope to learn so much more next year!
