Friday, January 26, 2024

On the road (to Las Vegas) again

 The Microsoft Excel World Championship has kicked off its new season of monthly fun Excel challenges. Ten battles this year, with five people qualifying from each one for the finals, and it's fair to say I didn't really get off to a flying start...


But hey, 49th out of 282 (including the ones with no score at all who might have forgotten they entered in the first place) is a start, and if we get another one that I unexpectedly do well at in the next nine months, we're all set for qualification again! Everyone else should join in, even if by doing so you reduce my chances even further!

Monday, January 22, 2024

Action and satisfaction

 NickToons is showing "ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks" all day every day at the moment, and I've changed my mind about the series. I'd assumed, since modern versions of classic cartoons are invariably rubbish, and the movies really really looked like they were rubbish, this modern cartoon would be terrible.

Well, I was entirely wrong. The episodes are of variable quality, but the best ones are just perfectly done! I think the classic mix of personalities embodied by Alvin, Simon and Theodore is always going to lend itself to entertaining stories, even in these terrible modern days, and I would urge everyone to go out and watch it!

(Simon's the best, by the way)


Meanwhile, I'm torn between two choices of activity on the 10th-11th of February. I could go to Cambridge for the Cambridge International Othello Tournament, like I invariably do at this time of year, or I could go to London to meet with people organising a puppet show for the May bank holiday weekend. Which I haven't done before but might have fun doing. Although the puppet people I mostly don't know all that well or at all and I've fallen in with them by way of mutual friends, so it might all be weird all round.

This could be the plot of a Chipmunks episode, actually. Simon would prefer the othello, and so would Theodore (although more because he fears change), but I might have to side with Alvin and do the puppet show this time.