First times of 2021

Even though I'm now in my mid-40s, I'm pleased to say that I'm still doing things for the first time (and lockdown doesn't count).

Here's a short list of things I've done for the first time in 2021 - good and bad alike.

1. Home-schooling three children, simultaneously.  The lockdown of spring 2021 is something I would like to forget, but I will remember that I was mostly able to home-school our three children (while my wife went to teach at her school) and get them through that time relatively successfully. We managed to do more than just survive, and I'm thankful for that.

2.  Teaching Ben to ride his bike. At the other end of the scale, I was delighted to teach Ben to ride his bike; it took some time, and we were dependent on the weather for our training slots, but after some back-breaking effort, and an adjustment to the height of his saddle, he was off riding solo.  Lizzie's uncle taught her to ride several years ago during a summer holiday when I was working through the summer.

3.  Three funerals, including the first for someone younger than me,  and the first which I watched remotely.  These do not get any easier, and Covid has meant that 2021 has been challenging in many, many ways.

4.  First time attending an airshow with the full family of five: this was a bonus to our August holiday, as we were able to attend an air display near the cottage we were staying in.  It was just right for our family too, with enough entertainment for everyone, including those who have little or no interest in aircraft.  I was pleased to be able to plan the day out and for it to go so well (it was dry but extremely windy!).

5.  First time deliberately driving to intercept the Red Arrows on a transit flight (ie en route from their airbase to a display location).  The Red Arrows flew a long route across the country to display at the G7 summit in the autumn, and I took two of the three children to watch them fly over Mow Cop Castle (on time, as planned).  Monitoring their flight plans (through NOTAMS) has become very useful!

6.  At work, I was promoted to become a people mananger, which entailed a number of consequences.  At the start of 2021 I had no intention of ever becoming a people mananger, but on 1 September, I became the manager of my team.  This had a number of consequent firsts: holding interviews for new staff, first hiring, first, "Thank you for applying, I am sorry to inform you..." and so on.  It's been an eventful and exciting time, and in many ways, every day has been a first.

7.  And for something completely trivial: early on the year, my wife confessed (that was her word) that she had started to enjoy South Korean dramas (so-called K-Dramas).  Well, in turns out that there's a wide range of them available on Netflix, and so for the first time we watched several series of K-dramas (with subtitles). Our clear favourite is Crash Landing On You, which is a unique, funny and touching romantic drama... it's difficult to classify as anything other than a good K-drama and it's highly recommended. We didn't enjoy Sky High (too intense and more of a thriller than a comedy) and The Secret Life of My Secretary was farcical.  We are currently watching Kim's Convenience, which is about a Korean family in Canada... possibly the best comedy of the year.

On the whole, I am pleased with what we accomplished as a family in 2021 (and what I achieved personally), and am more pleased to be saying goodbye to it, and hello to 2022.

The Book of Boba Fett: Episode 1

CONTAINS SPOILERS

The Book Of Boba Fett, Episode 1: Stranger in a Strange Land

One of Star Wars' most famous supporting characters, Boba Fett had barely a handful of lines in the original trilogy but had an extensive back-story retroactively created in Episode 2: Attack of the Clones. His story ended dramatically in Episode 6, with his ignominious head-first plunge into the mouth of the Sarlaac Pit on Tattoine, but he was mysteriously resurrected for the new Mandalorian series.  In fact, Boba's plight has been discussed repeatedly and at length over the past 40 years:  did he escape, or was he slowly digested over a thousand years?  And if he did escape, how did he do it?

Episode 1 of the new Disney+ series, The Book of Boba Fett, starts with Boba in a bacta chamber (lying horizontally, compared to Luke and Anakin Skywalker who were vertical in theirs).  He's suffering flashbacks in his dreams, and well over half of the episode time is spent in flashback, which is helpful as the current story is set several years after the Sarlaac pit.

Boba blasted his way out of the Sarlaac Pit using his wrist-mounted flamethrowers, and clambered his way through the desert sand, breaking through the surface of the sand exhausted and depleted.  And vulnerable. The Jawas find him first, and strip him of all his armour, weapons and gadgets. The Tusken raiders - the sand people - find him next, revive him and drag him off to their camp.  So, this is an origin (or re-origination) story, which reminded me of Batman Begins - the hero spends most of his time without his suit of armour.  His time with the Tusken raiders is typical desert prison material - there's no point trying to escape when the captors hold the water supply.  Nevertheless, Boba is determined to try - even after being betrayed by another captive, a red-coloured Rodian (like Greedo).

Events take a twist while Boba and his fellow prisoner are taken into the desert to dig for water.  Water on Tattoine is found in organisms that look like sea urchins and which hold water, and Boba is commanded to start digging for these urchins which live just below the surface of the sand.  The Tusken who is in charge is a youngling, a juvenile who needs to earn the respect of the camp, and who has been given prison duty to learn desert craft.

The Rodian, while digging for water urchins, uncovers a large, dangerous six-legged lizard creature.  After a dramatic and well-executed battle scene, the lizard makes short work of the Rodian, and starts pursuing the young Tusken.  Boba intervenes, leaping onto the back of the creature and using the chain that was previously shackling him to the Rodian to strangle the lizard.  The lizard falls down dead, and the Tusken lives to tell the tale.

Well, he would if he was an honest Tusken. Instead, he steals the credit and tells the rest of his tribe that he killed the creature.  He shows the tribe the spoils of 'his' victory - the head of the creature - and regales them with with details of the fight.  The action here is excellent - for a character who is covered head-to-toe in inscrutable costume, the young raider has a youthful animation - bobbing his head excitedly and rocking his shoulders with excitement and delight.

One of the older members of the sand people can see through this little Deception, and again without words or expression conveys this extremely well.  He hands Boba one of the water urchins to drink, knowing full well that there was no way that the young raider slew the lizard, and it must have been Boba's doing.

Boba in the present is a man who carries the wounds of his past.  This is not the same ruthless character who was Darth Vader's favourite Bounty hunter, and he wants to change the way things are run on Tattoine.  He has not recovered from his time in the Sarlaac pit, or his time with the sand people; as he explains: "The dreams have started again."  He sleeps in a bacta tank; his face and chest are layers of scar tissue; he trusts his lieutenant, Fennec Shand, but nobody else.

He has taken over Jabba's palace, which has not changed since the Hutt was in charge. The palace looks exactly the same as it did in Return of the Jedi, and the crew have used some of the same camera angles from the original film (but without any of the fanfare that accompanied the nostalgia shots in The Force Awakens  for example).  This understated approach works well, and underlines the fact that this might be the same building but it's not the same place.  Jabba's palace was full and noisy; Boba's residence is empty and quiet.  As he quietly remarks to Fennec at one point, "We're going to need a protocol droid."

Boba's entire approach to running his business on Tattoine is completely different to Jabba, and he says so. However, not everybody is keeping up with the regime change.  Citizens of Mos Espa still bring him tribute; local businesses are still paying him protection money and the local criminals are out to assassinate him.  Others think that his new ideas make him look weak, and expect him to pay tribute - the scene with the mayor's messenger are equally tense, awkward and hilarious.

He visits Mos Espa - a large, crowded city - on foot, helmet off. I guess when you've gone through the experiences with the Tuskens in the Tattoine desert, you realise that the man is more than just the armour he wears and the weapons he carries.  There follows a failed assassination attempt, and an impressive extended fight scene, where Boba and Fennec are ambushed by a team of well-trained soldiers, and need the assistance of their Gamorrian bodyguards (the same species that Jabba had as his bodyguards).  

This is a new, different Boba Fett, but this is still classic Star Wars, and I am excited to see how the Book of Boba Fett unfolds (weekly on Wednesdays on Disney+).

 

 

Advent: What does your voice look like?

 As you may know, I work from home - and I've been working from home for over 10 years, so when the pandemic hit last year, I was already very experienced in the challenges of remote working.  In fact, while most people were adjusting to talking to people they already knew over Zoom and Teams, I was carrying on as usual.  And in my case, that means working with people that I haven't met face-to-face. 

In September, I became the manager of my team, and out of a team of eight people, I've only met one of them in person.  More recently, I've been recruiting and interviewing people - again, without meeting them face-to-face.  I was interviewed for my job over the phone (Zoom wasn't a thing 10 years ago); now I'm interviewing via video conference.  That's technology for you.

When I first started remote working, everything was done over email and over the phone (with screen sharing over the computer), and all I had to work with was a voice and a name, and possibly a profile picture.  Even my manager and my team mates were voices and names, which slowly developed into personalities.  However, one of the things I inevitably did was to imagine faces for the people I was speaking to.  In my imagination, men with deep voices were generally taller (longer necks, larger lungs), while men with higher voices were shorter.  

It's a very strange experience when you meet somebody in person after having constructed an imaginary persona for them without knowing what they look like - all the knowledge, memories and experience of working with Jim, or Roger, or Carolyn, suddenly and immediately collide with the actual person you're meeting.  It's the exact opposite of meeting a stranger for the first time, and not knowing anything about them - the mental whiplash is bizarre (especially when your mental image of them is completely wrong).

There's also a different experience when you're on a conference call with multiple people but no video - and somebody starts speaking.  Who is that?  Who does that sound like?  What are they saying?  Who would normally use those words and ask those types of question?  What kind of accent is that?  One of my colleagues once commented that it's like watching an animated movie and trying to work out who the voice actors are!

So:  what does your voice look like?  We can build up a mental image of somebody based on their emails, their writing, and even in some conversations, but there is still this gap between who you are and what your voice looks like (have you ever watched Blind Date?).

What does God's voice look like?  The nation of Israel knew God's voice and had carefully written down and kept what He'd said, to form the Scriptures.  Did they know God?  Sort of, maybe, perhaps.  Did they know what His voice looked like?  No.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.  No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known." 
John 1:1, 1:14, 1:18

What does God's voice look like?

Jesus.