Matthew Lang

I watched the final episode of Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi last night and I have to say it was a great ending to a fantastic series.

I had so many questions about how this series would pan out. If Obi-Wan and Leia meet, why doesn’t she remember? Surely Obi-Wan and Darth Vader can’t have an epic lightsaber battle? These questions and the many more I had were thankfully answered in a number of different ways, but didn’t lead to a major plot hole between this a A New Hop. Obi-Wan’s final episode was a great finish to the series and for one scene in particular, it’s definitely worth the wait.

Ewan McGregor reprising his role as Obi-Wan was always going to be a good choice, but it was Vivien Lyra Blair who played Leia who really stole the show for me. Moses Ingram who played Inquisitor Reva was also great, a more complicated character than you might first assume.

Will there be more from Kenobi? I don’t know. I would be quite happy if they left the show as it finished. There is one story that I would like to see more of, but I don’t want to give the ending away, so you’ll just need to watch it.

And about that missing Star Destroyer in the final episode. Maybe on the other side of the planet?

My favourite game of all time has been polished up for the PS5 and will also soon be released on the PC as well. This might just fill in the gap before the HBO series begins.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve started to make some progress on many of the habits that I fell away from a few years ago. I’m reading again, I’m working on more side projects, and I’m starting to find myself blogging more again. Feels good that I have found my path again. I hope that it continues.

Shazam was an unexpected DC favourite in the Lang household. I think Black Adam will be another DC favourite for us.

Professor Chris Painter at The Byline Times digs into the lack of direction that the United Kingdom finds itself in under its Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

Nothing has changed; everything has changed. Following Monday’s vote of confidence, Boris Johnson staggers on, for now. The lyrics from the famous 1960s Beatles track even more perfectly encapsulate, through popular culture, the state of his failing premiership: “He’s a real nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody, doesn’t have a point of view, knows not where he’s going to.”

— Boris Johnson: Nowhere Man by Professor Chris Painter

I didn’t think there would be enough votes on Monday to trigger a leadership contest for the Conservatives. Still, I was somewhat taken aback by the number of politicians who voted against Boris Johnson. The Conservatives have never been a party favoured by myself. Although, it is refreshing to see that there are members of the Conservative party who are willing to take some form of action.

It is hard to conceive of anything that will heal Johnson’s fundamental breach of trust with the public, no matter how many ministers he reshuffles. Already saved twice, first by COVID vaccines and then by the situation in Ukraine, he descends into ever deeper trouble.

— Boris Johnson: Nowhere Man by Professor Chris Painter

While there are plenty of indicators that the UK public is fed up with Johnson’s antics, the only real test of the public’s trust in Johnson is a general election. And the conservatives aren’t going to call a general election early unless they absolutely have to.

Twenty years ago, Boris might have gotten away with continuing on and ignoring the public’s views. Still, there’s no escaping the scrutiny of the people for those in power. With a more connected world than ever before, there are very few ways leaders can hide the ugly truth. I hope that, in time, the world starts to see a change in those that undertake a career in politics. Perhaps those coming into politics will have more tremendous respect for the connected world and commit to doing a more respectful job of governing than Johnson and others.

The wee guy channeling his inner artist in the corner of the garden this afternoon.

Walking round the peripheral of the Trump Turnberry course while Ethan plays his county match. Such a beautiful part of the world.

This morning I finally resovled an issue with a Rails application of mine.

After a couple of weeks, of getting an hour every other night to resovle this, I finally understood what the problem was and how it could be fixed. A bug? Not necessarily, it was more of a lack of understanding on my part. The issue is fixed now and I can now crack on with other elements of the application.

There I was waiting on the final match tonight when I noticed a nice bit of light through the trees from the 11th tee. It wasn’t until I got home and I realised I captured a deer almost in the middle of the shot.

Digital Minimalism and Deep Work author Cal Newport, highlights a new paper shows that taking a prolonged and full break is good for you.

The researchers further found that they could obtain smaller, but still significant improvements in depression and anxiety by having users simply reduce the time they spend on Twitter and TikTok. The biggest effects, however, came from full abstention.

— Taking a Break from Social Media Makes you Happier and Less Anxious

This is something that I need to do more often. The endless scrolling is a terrible habit of mine. When this happens, I sometimes start to sense that feeling of negativeness creeping in as I am scrolling. At this point I just put my phone down and find something else to do. Maybe I should just delete the Twitter app from my phone?