Weeknotes No. 8

Oct 4, 2026

Life, the Universe, and Everything

• Spent the bulk of my free time this week gaming and playing guitar; barely touched my computer or went online (minus the time I spent doing some product research). It felt pretty good to take a break and focus on other hobbies!
• One consequence of this is that I came dangerously close to buying a new amplifier. Thankfully, I managed to rein in my GAS.¹GAS (noun, abbr.), short for “Gear Acquisition Syndrome,” is a chronic, incurable condition common to most guitar players. The primary clinical feature of GAS is an intense, overwhelming craving for new gear. During an acute exacerbation of GAS, guitarists tend to experience the following predictable progression of symptoms: (1) a feeling of immense dissatisfaction with their current setup; (2) all-consuming thoughts that purchasing a new piece of gear will provide relief from that dissatisfaction; (3) compulsive researching of desirable new gear on Reddit and The Gear Page forums; (4) obsessive viewing of YouTube sound demos of said new gear; and in the final stages (5) frequent thoughts of heading up to the local music store “just to give it a whirl and see.” A flare-up of GAS is only resolved either by purchasing new gear, or gradually coming to one’s senses and realizing that new gear is actually not required at this time.
  • I went all-in on digital modelling for guitar and bass several years ago, largely because we share a wall with our neighbours and I’m a considerate person. Digital modelling means I can play silently through headphones and (after many hours of tweaking settings with the companion software) get sounds that sort of resemble mic’ed up tube amplifiers.
    • I like digital modelling well enough, and can play at TV volume through my nice studio monitors when I get tired of using my headphones, but sometimes I miss the simplicity of twisting knobs on an analogue amplifier.
    • Playing guitar with a cranked up amplifier also just feels different. Something physical happens when you’re getting hit with a wall of sound emanating from a speaker cabinet. I miss that, too.
    • I may still get a solid state amp that I can play loud with when the neighbours are out, and turn down to quieter levels when they’re home … it’s hard to justify the added expense, though, when I can get good results through my studio monitors (just not at house-shaking levels).
      • Of course, having an amp again means I could get back into jamming with friends again without having to use their gear … ugh, see how quickly GAS takes hold?

TV Shows and Movies I Watched

• It’s spooky season! 🎃 Halloween is my favourite holiday, so I always use October as an excuse to squeeze in as much horror and weird shit as I can handle.
• We’ve kicked things off with the first (and hopefully not only) season of Widow’s Bay, which is incredibly fun so far. It’s very Twin Peaks/Alan Wake, if you’re into that sort of thing.
• For our Saturday movie night viewing, we watched Backrooms. I absolutely adored it! A wonderfully weird and unsettling premise that reminded me so much of Control: Resonant in some scenes (which I’ll be getting to in a moment).

Games I Played

• Mostly finished Control: Resonant, minus some side quests and tasks.
  • Holy shit, what a game! Navigating around a distorted, constantly shifting Manhattan and beating up weird monsters/possessed vending machines is an utter joy.
  • Playing this game felt like watching a long sequence of magic tricks; my mind was blown by what was happening on so many different occasions. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the sensation of falling down through the map while also ploughing forward through the screen on the horizontal axis at the exact same time.
  • There’s also a nostalgic metafictional sequence towards the end of the main quest line … I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s so wonderful and worth the full price of the game alone.
• Started the remastered Witcher 3. It looks beautiful on my PS5 Pro! Combat feels a little smoother, too. I’ve tried to play Witcher 3 so many times, though, and always end up losing interest at some point … so it remains to be seen if I’ll stick with it.
• I’ve been saving The Last of Us: Part II for October, and plan on starting it the week before Halloween. Really looking forward to it!

Books I Read

• Still working on Real Tigers … I thought I’d finish it this week, but Control: Resonant and my guitars meant that didn’t end up happening. I’m trying to get through it quickly, though, as I’d like to move on to my usual October tradition of reading a new (to me) Stephen King novel. There aren’t many left on the list!

Footnotes