Play Station episode, Steven Spielberg films and more - W37

This week was full of rainy days, but somehow I managed to go back from work unscathed, even though I forgot my umbrella a bunch of times. I have felt this week fly by yet again! Here are some events of note from September 8 to 14, 2026.

• 🎧 The Into the Aether episode going over The Play Station is finally up. More than SIX hours exploring one of the most interesting videogame libraries! There are mentions to awesome games I love, and if you are yet to listen to this podcast, you owe it to yourself to get started with an episode like this one! You will love it Syl!

• 🌻 Decided to share some positivity and start writing posts sharing #3GoodThings on my GtS profile! A few of those things will probably be featured on future weeknotes, as is the case here.

• 🤫 Participated on a secret project I don’t want to spoil for anyone here. I will spill the beans once it’s done though, I’m sure it will take a couple of you by surprise, can’t wait to see your reactions to it…

• 🥩 Had a wonderful BBQ evening with some friends and family. It was grilled in Potosino style (from San Luis Potosi) and my belly was full and very satisfied, I do miss steak from the northern states in Mexico though, one of these days…

• ⌨️ The Web Writers’ Collective new logo is up, designed by my friend Naty! I did an 88x31 button for the icon! You can already see it on my site’s footer section and take it from there if you join the club.

• ☕ My church’s youth group met together at a coffee shop, and we had our reunion in a room there—it’s a big coffee shop! The change of scenery was honestly very refreshing, the coffee was very good, and we had an enjoyable time afterwards.

• 🏠 My parents and my sister have been on and off the house, because of medical reasons. I have enjoyed my time alone (the games and movies below say so!), but it’s been a lot by now. They returned on the weekend at last, my sister had a surgery and is home recovering, so things are somewhat normal again, which is kind of nice too.

• 📞 It’s been about two weeks since my phone number was blocked by the government and I am happy to say, I really don’t miss it! Although it’s been a little annoying every once in a while, I don’t get spam messages nor phone calls anymore, life is at peace.

• 📱 App Recommendation! PhotoSwooper is pretty, it turns your gallery into a dating app, and you swipe to delete or keep pictures, at the end you confirm one more time, and clean up some space!

Watching

During my days home alone, I watched a couple of pictures that happen to be both directed by Steven Spielberg, so that was fun. Zero complaints!

• 🤖 A.I. Artificial Intelligence - This movie follows the journey of a sentient robot, shaped after a child, built to seek the love of a mother whose actual child is in a comma. The robot really does behave like a kid, in both good and bad ways, but when the real child returns, things turn complicated and Daniel, our protagonist, ends up abandoned on the woods. His child-like mind dreams of becoming a real boy. It is a bit of a retelling of Pinnocchio, but in a very different context that was super interesting to me. Spielberg worked alongside Stanley Kubrick to write it, though Kubrick passed before the film was done. Loved it.

• 🏃 Catch Me If You Can - This is the movie of a con man who commited check fraud, identity fraud, and all sorts of things, lading a fortune and travelling world wide, pretending to be a pilot, a doctor and even a lawyer. This was apparently based on real life, but it seems like the guy actually made everything up, so in a way he was a pretty good con man anyway. The movie itself is a roller coaster though and extremely entertaining, as Tom Hanks is the FBI agent obsessed with capturing this guy played by Leo Di Captrio. Amazing duo!

Reading

• 🏚️ The House on the Borderland - Chapters 6-12. Finally making some progress on this novel! I managed to read a few chapters of this during my bus trip to work. The story has remained thrilling. I find the protagonist to be quite interesting, as he is really doing everything in his power to ensure the survival of him and his family.

• 👊 Centuria - Chapters 51-65. Okay the battles really picked up! It has been non-stop fight after fight and while it’s a little hard to follow, I think I have the advantage of reading multiple chapters in a row, which helps me not forget about what was going on last time. There have been some really cool revelations as well, so that’s nice.

• 🚬 Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You - Chapters 63-64. This romance comedy/drama finally released some issues—the monthly schedule is killing me!—and I caught up on time. I truly love what the author is doing with this story! It has been rather complicated stuff, but somewhat relatable and very charming. Looking forward to a new issue in a few more weeks…

Gaming

Completed

• 🔬 The Two Rivers Hypothesis - Wait, where did this come from? A completed videogame in less than a week? Well, don’t be too surprised, this is an existential horror game where we control a remote submarine as it ventures into a laboratory installation where some physical theories and anomalies were studied. It is mostly about finding knowledge as you move forward, and understanding (or being confused) by the revelations of what happened there. It’s only about thirty minutes long, and you can get it for free on itch.io!

• 🕵️ Emio: The Smiling Man - Wait, where did this come from? A completed game in less than a week? Well, you should be surprised! This is a visual novel—not a genre for everyone it seems—where we play as a young detective solving a murder mystery. The story starts with a young student found dead, with a paperbag on his head with a creepy smiling face drawn on it. The plot thickens at every moment, and the resolution is rather awesome. I played this in three days, up to 5 hours each session. I will write a review for it very soon, though I don’t want to spoil anything else. For a Nintendo game, this deals with very dark topics and some gruesome moments, so discretion is advised!

Started

• 🦍 Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Since I was home with just one friend of mine, I decided to start another adventure that had a 2-player mode! I remembered Kirby has that, and welp, we ended up playing through the beginning batch of levels until the first boss! It was extremely fun and we got all the quests, saving a bunch of Waddle-Doos. I definitely plan to continue this one by myself too, super fun.

• 🏰 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Only did the first twenty minutes of this game, which I had never opened before, I was expecting some nice pixel art, but it was genuinly jaw-droppingly gorgeous. I wasn’t planning to play it more, but I might just do that…

Ongoing

• ⚔️ The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D - After a little break, I have returned! I got the actual Ocarina of Time, made it to the Temple of Time, held the Master Sword, got a huge lore dump, headed to Lon Lon Ranch, got Epona, went to Kakariko Village, obtained the Hookshot, got lost in the Lost Woods way too many times, then finally found the Forest Temple, which I’m going to do this week!

• ⚔️ Fire Emblem Awakening - Okay, NOW I finally bested Chapter 19, complete and without any losses, I am also halfway through a very good run of Chapter 20, which I expect to beat without hiccups and maybe go beyond it, this week.

• 🏖️ Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream - CompletingEmio made me want something a little more chill on my Nintendo Switch, so I returned to check on my Miis and had some fun with them!

Around the Web

There are only blog posts on these weeknotes! I hope you find something interesting on each of them.

• You don’t need to be good at your hobbies - I wholeheartedly agree, although I like to be good at my hobbies sometimes, but only as a personal goal.
• What Do We Feel When We See Another Video Game Remake? - We both know we are both going to buy this, Wouter, you’re not fooling anybody.
• My Blog as a Library - This was a very interesting setup that is only expected from someone as cool as Marisabel.
• First Day of School - The years have sure passed, this was a very interesting outlook from Jane.
• Taking a break from text based social media - Lee decided to do what the title says, and I’m all for it. About a year ago I did the same thing!

This is day 34 of #100DaysToOffload