After a month of various consultations and whatnot, one of my colleagues volunteered for redundancy, which means that I am still working for SMG. It comes as a relief, since job hunting is not very pleasant and despite having some strong leads, the whole process was enormously stressful.
My heart goes out to those that are looking for new positions, of course, and sincerely hope that this industry does better to accommodate growth responsibility from now on. That said, Take-Two Interactive, the publishers of a certain much-anticipated game called GTA VI, are planning layoffs too – potentially up to 579 jobs.
So, for me, the answer is still 42 and I’m still not from Guildford after all[1] but a small town called Woking. As for the question, well, only the mice[2] can figure that one out.
[1] I just work there. [2] Pan-dimensional beings.
Not much to say here, other than these are perhaps two of the greatest performances of film music I’ve seen to date.
First up is the late Ryuichi Sakamoto performing the theme to Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (in which he also appeared). He won the Oscar (along with David Byrne and Cong Su) for best soundtrack in 1987. I love the use of traditional instruments at the start and building up to something epic before putting everything together in a powerful resolution.
The second performance is from Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (the English edition adapted by Neil Gaiman). It’s a glorious suite featuring the main theme, a wonderfully percussive action theme (The Demon God) and the main theme reprised, but featuring a vocal performance.
What strikes me about this is how beautiful the chorus is – particularly towards the end when joining the main vocalist. To have been there and heard this live would have been wonderful. Joe Hisaishi is one my favourite composers of all time, having composed many of Studio Ghibli’s works. A true master of his craft.
Ever since switching over to Microsoft 365 Business Premium for my personal email, I’ve removed Sophos Home Premium and BitDefender and replaced them with Microsoft Defender XDR. And I’m pretty, pretty, pretty impressed.
Not only does it have a significantly lower footprint and doesn’t slow up disk I/O (which was evident having plugged in an external SSD and measured performance with BitDefender and Microsoft Defender – Microsoft Defender significantly beating BitDefender by some margin), but having adjusted notifications for vulnerabilities on my personal Dell Inspiron Plus 16 (7630), I now get emails whenever I need to update software on my system.
And if I do encounter malware, I get native Windows notifications for it. It’s really well integrated within the OS, and all controlled and managed through the Defender web portal.
Time to update Google Chrome!
Overall, the past two months using Microsoft 365 Business Premium have been terrific, with excellent support that’s easy to find and with quick resolutions. I feel that Microsoft have certainly added value for money here over the Enterprise edition of Google Workspace.
On May 22nd, 2026 I will turn 50. Half a century old. One foot in the grave. Things of that nature. And on that same date, the next Star Wars movie since 2019 will be released:
The Mandalorian and Grogu
Whether this is a replacement for season 4 of the excellent Star Wars TV series, The Mandalorian, or whether it’s in addition to – I just don’t know. But what I do know is that I want to watch it on the big screen. I’ve been a Star Wars fan ever since I was a little kid (even if Yoda scared the living daylights out of me when I went to see Empire Strikes Back at the local Gants Hill Odeon back in the early 80’s).
All these decades later I still love the original trilogy and everything else that’s been going on long ago in a galaxy far, far away. Being 50 (which, ironically is the same age that Grogu is when he’s found by Din Djarin, the Mandalorian) does not change the fact I still love this franchise. These films have meant so much to me that it made me want to work in the film industry (and eventually I did), and has always been a part of my life in some way.
I’ve already seen a movie with George Lucas. Literally. He was sitting a few rows back from me when I attended the New York world premiere of Peter Jackson’s King Kong. It was truly a star-studded affair and I even wore a tux for the occasion. The fanciest, most expensive trip to the cinema I’ve ever experienced. But – and this is my crazy thinking – what if I were to get premiere ticket(s) for this new Star Wars film? Would that be in LA, New York or London? Would George Lucas and/or any of the surviving actors from the original trilogy be there?
If nothing else, I’d like to do something that doesn’t define what it means to be 50. Maybe a party with Star Wars cakes and everybody wearing masks (me as Darth?). That would be both sad and hilarious. Mainly sad, I suspect.
Well, I’ve got a bit of time to think about what I want to do. In the mean time, live long and may the Schwartz be with you!
