First Alien and now TRON

There are only ten weeks left this year, that’s just really weird to think about isn’t it?

I actually wasn’t so used to calendar weeks until I started using them to number these weeknotes, even though I had already used them at my workplace for a while, it just never caught on. It’s rather strange that there’s only 52 of these for a whole year…

Anyway! Let’s get back to it.

📽️ My parents went on a short trip and I had Friday for myself. I finished quite a bit of media I had in the backlog such as the TRON movies, so this week kind of feels like a whole month, especially compared to my earlier monthly summaries…
🃏 We tried this new (to us) card game called The Mind, where you team up with friends to deal in ascending order without any communication, just with intuition and the power of friendship! It is pretty fun and we’ve made it to Level 5 twice, but I am not sure if I got an original or a bootleg, because the printing quality of the cards and packaging isn’t too great.
👕 My shirts from The Yetee, featuring art inspired by Super Metroid and Final Fantasy, finally arrived! I’m pretty happy with them, and I am also happy I don’t care about any of their spooky designs at the moment so I’m not in danger of falling again—as long as they don’t make something from Parasite Eve.
💀 My mom totally roasted me when I wore my Metroid shirt today in the morning asking “who’s that guy?” and for some reason I replied with “actually, Samus is a girl”—she told me I should get a girlfriend…
🕹️ Another couple games for the backlog, the Super Mario Galaxy 1+2 release for Switch, which I honestly feel no guilt about because they truly are childhood games from a time where I barely saw a console once a month or so… and Suikoden 1+2. I have been playing the second one of my RG35XX SP but I felt like owning them physically.
📕 My sister went to a book fair, and got me some physical books! the original Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov, and the Robot Dreams anthology too! She’s studying in another state so I won’t get them until Christmas though. I’ll have to read I, Robot first anyway.
🐕 One of my dogs got in a car accident just yesterday and he’s currently recovering in a vet clinic. I couldn’t go, but from the pictures my dad sent he seems fine from the outside. I hope he recovers soon…

Gaming

Yet another week were I haven’t played Silksong! Honestly, I barely played anything at all. I very much preferred to read my books throughout most of the week, and what I played was on the weekend, and only for a couple hours, since I preferred to watch TVs

I can’t emphasise enough how surprised I am at the puzzle design of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Once I get into a dungeon, looking at the environments and wondering “okay so, what should I do here” every time, is really fun! Most of the puzzles are based on pushing things. This week I completed the Silent Cathedral, where I pushed pipes to get some airflow going and float all the way to the top, faced against a boss, after some epic dialogue cutscene (really, the voice acting here has been astounding). I got a powerup and headed towards the next dungeon, where a huge secret was unveiled. I always get a bit lost when trying to find where to go next, but once inside a new area, figuring out where to go is easier. We’ll see how this continues!

Other than that, I had some runs of Slice & Dice in Blursed mode and made it to fight 56 once—I’m still unable to beat my PB though. I also played some Super Smash Bros Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, after a few months without touching either of them for some reason.

Reading

Not too bad! Another couple books completed, I am actually going to reach my goal! Reviews coming soon.

Completed

Babylon’s Ashes - I had a fantastic time reading this book, the sixth of The Expanse. I can’t wait to read the next one once my book club catches up! I think it’s the first time I actually finish first, so that’s pretty fun.
Overscan - An anthology collection from Nantucket Lit, I got it because Amin wrote one of the stories, but I enjoyed all of them in the end! There’s some really good stuff here, check it out!

Ongoing

Ariadne in the Blue Sky - Read up to chapter 190. Once again, the story is starting to get real tense, as we are only 27 chapters away from the finale. This has been a great read for the most part! And it’s getting a bit darker, on a similar level to Claymore even, but it still keeps the optimism to a degree, good stuff!

Watching

As I said, I watched a lot of shows and movies this time around. I also continued (or started) some new series, so, yeah. TRON lives!

Movies

TRON - After watching TRON: Ares last week, I wanted to see the rest of the franchise. I loved this one more than I thought! I remember being so confused by it one time I watched it ages ago as a kid. This time I understood a lot of it and really enjoyed it for what it is and for its time. The effects look weird today, but I didn’t mind, I just put myself in the shoes of a kid in the 80s and enjoye it. It’s a huge technical marvel and it has all my respect.
TRON: Legacy - There’s no question for me that this is the best movie of the franchise. I just can’t believe how well this movie holds up. I found myself grinning the whole time for some reason, how it payed homage to the original in subtle ways, how incredible the VFX and the cinematography are, and how utterly perfect Daft Punk’s soundtrack is. I wish I could experience this movie again on the cinemas in IMAX or something, I really missed out back then. Also, Jules Verne is mentioned so that’s another thumbs up for me.
K-Pop Demon Hunters - This movie is just awesome. It’s not your typical animated musical at all. I found the story here to be genuinely interesting and complex. The characters are fun and relatable, with actual personality and depth, The animation is super fun and as expresive as it gets, not shy of breaking the laws of physics and logic, because that’s what animation is for. The songs are pretty good and popular and for good reason. I think there’s only one thing that didn’t hit the landing for me, but other than that. A fun movie that even got me to tear up. Take notes Pixar.

Shows & Anime

TRON: Uprising - This animated show could be as big as The Clone Wars is for Star Wars, it expands the world of TRON a lot, the characters are so awesome, and features an extremely good soundtrack similar to TRON Legacy. The story itself is great so far. Sadly, it only has one season, I’ve watched a third of it at this point.
Alien Earth - Finished the last 2 episodes of this show, I must admit, it took a really bizarre direction here, and a lot of the decisions from every character felt forced and just done for the sake of shock or subverting expectations without any justification. I am honestly not sure where they’ll take the story at this point, so many things are just ignored and left unanswered. I’ll probably still watch a second season though. If I’ve learned something is that Alien is always weird and takes very weird turns, so in a way, all this is within parameters.
Record of Ragnarok Season 2 - I watched the last four episodes of this, and the fight was pretty epic. Again, I don’t think that much about these, I’m only here to see the progression and backstories of the gods and characters!
Death Note - To tie things up, I watched one episode of this, after quite a hiatus! Thankfully the plot is still fresh in my mind, and it’s been cool thus far.

Around the web

Lots of links to be found here, thread carefully.

Blogposts

I Owe Warez For Properly Discovering CRPGs - A fantastic trip down memory lane on the world of shareware and such from back in the day, before I was born. Floppy disks, weird EXE files, rips without the soundtrack of the game, and more!
Why Stories Make You Smarter Than Self-Help Books - I kind of rambled about Science Fiction the other day and this article highlights some of that. Stories let you live through other characters, see how they apply their values, how they struggle, and it’s different to just having technical tips and fun facts. Just give this a read.
Noodling on writing in a cafe vs at home - Changing the environment where you write is always worth a try. I find that I almost don’t write at home anymore, compared to just doing it during my work commutes
Doing things immediately - This is a pretty good reminder!
Career Snakes & Ladders - An enjoyable read from Kev pursuing a better balance between work and family over a high position or salary.
The alien in my cupboard - Okay, this was just a fun short sci-fi story! I chuckled a bit at how casual everything was, I kinda think I could write something like it.
I found a Rubik’s Cube - I like Rubik’s cubes, you should like them too.

YouTube

MCON Final Production Unboxing - The Deep Dive - This phone controller is finally ready for production, and it looks simply incredible! If you’ve always wanted something like the PSVita or the Sony Xperia Play, this is it!
Chainsaw. - Ahoy is a fantastic channel making essays about videogames, all of his content is fantastic, this just happened to be the one I saw this week.
It’s Just So Flipping’ CUTE! - The Miyoo Mini Flip is very close, and after realizing it will be instantly compatible with OnionOS I am DEFINITELY ordering this one (my sister still has my Miyoo Mini…)
Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Sci-Fi Movie Tier List - Can you tell I’ve been on a bit of a Sci-Fi streak recently?