April 2024 Summary

Let's go through what I did during the month of April, some gaming, some movies, some anime, podcasts and more stuff!

Podcasts

I listened to 93 hours of Podcasts this month, the usual subjects to be honest but also some surprises!

• Into The Aether: I’ve followed this podcast for a while, and I’ve been active on their discord server for a bit, which also has made me not want to miss out on the episodes to take part of the conversation, a bit of a vicious cycle is forming, but it remains fun as always!

• Eye of The Duck: I listened to some great episodes here, these are not movie reviews, they are more like mini documentaries where they also talk about the most important scene of the film for them. I listened to their episodes on Deep Impact, Spider-Man 2, Gravity and others.

• Dungeons and Daddies: Finally finished this show, season 2 was good and had great moments but I think I still prefer season 1, it felt more cohesive and the stakes were also bigger in my opinion. I admit I didn’t pay as much attention to this season though, I often got distracted or didn’t listen to full episodes in one go.

• The Rest is History: This was a new addition I saw in someone’s AntennPodEcho, and I listened to their 5 episodes series about the Titanic and they completely won me over, I’ve listened to other series of them and I quite enjoy this new discovery!

• Casefile True Crime: This is also a new addition, a rather minimal and very easy to sleep to true crime podcast with a great host (with a good voice), I’ve only listened to a couple episodes on repeat to sleep lol.

Books

This month I managed to read quite a bit more books, and I am quite happy about that. You have already seen some reviews of these that you can check in this site.

• Dune: This was a wonderful read that reinvigorated my desire to keep reading alongside my newly acquired Kobo. It was a fantastic journey, you can read my review here
• The Palace of Eternity: Another great read, which had quite a unique premise and great worldbuilding, it is quite impossible to predict how the plot unfolds, and it just happens so naturally, very engaging.
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles: My first book from Agatha Christie, did not dissapoint, I really enjoyed it and right when I thought I knew who it was, everything changed at every turn. I read along with @isa and we had a blast.
• The Machine Stops: This is a short story that is truly ahead of its time, it was a quite a fascinating—and somewhat horrifying—read which is hard to belive is more than a century old. It is a dystopia where all of Humanity’s needs are now taken care of by The Machine, it encompasses so much in just a few pages, completely worth a read.

Games

• A Short Hike: A cute and small open world game that offers a lot of entertaining side quests and funny dialogues to enjoy life and keep trying!
• Inside: An atmospheric puzzle platformer with great sound design and fantastic mechanics, it was quite challenging but satisfying.
• I Was A Teenage Exocolonist: A roleplaying visual novel where I’m living the life of a little kid who will grow up in the first human exocolony, I make choices, there’s some weird mystery going on and I’ll play it and finish it this month hopefully.
• Hades: I fell of this game on March, but I did a couple more runs this time and it is definitely fun. I just have so many other things going on right now I can’t quite focus on it more.
• God Of War: Chains of Olympus: I gave this PSP title a go once more, it is more challenging than I remember, but the fights are fun and sometimes I just get in the zone and blast through everyone, kind of like Hades but with cooler moves that I wish Hades’ sequel has.
• Balatro: Oh Balatro, fun and still impossible to beat for me! But maybe May is the month I’ll finally win.
• Worms W.M.D.: I got this game and played it with my friends over and over during the weekends, it is super funny and quite simple to get into, even if half my the time we keep shooting missiles to themselves.

Movies

• Spy x Family Code:White: Just a really fun movie to watch from the Spy x Family anime, you don’t need to watch it to understand the plot here. There’s tons of fun, tons of action and some really wholesome moments. I enjoyed it a lot with my family at the movies. It won’t win any prizes, but it was a good time.

Manga

• Just Listen to the Song: This is a one-shot that is just about not thinking too much about the meaning of the art one might create sometimes, it is fun and I don’t want to think much about it.
• Monster: I didn’t manage to finish this manga because I was too busy reading books, but its going and just, more things pop up, it is great.
• One Punch Man: I decided to go back to OPM for a bit and catch up, it is really fun and some intrigue for a new arc is getting closer, some new fights have happened which were cool.
• Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End: Because of the anime, which I am watching, I decided to catch up on the Manga as well, there’s a lot of good stuff waiting to happen on screen! Can’t wait!
• DanDaDan: Just a few chapters of this one again, an anime is coming out so I am trying to catch up to this once more, it is getting quite interesting too, but this one is always kind of insane.
• Elfen Lied: This was a manga I saw recommended a while ago, it was more gory and dark and yet somehow trying to be cute and a bit of a romance? I don’t think I’ll keep reading. But maybe I’ll change my mind one day.

Anime & TV Shows

• Spy x Family Season 2: In preparation for the movie, we decided to watch Season 2 of this anime. It was hilarious and enjoyable, but the main mission was put aside, which is a bit strange, however I already knew since I read the manga, and I don’t really think it is that needed. Just some slice of life goodness is ok.
• Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End: I have watched half the season so far with my sister, this show is beautiful, simply fantastic, I love it so much. The manga was a masterpiece already, and this is somehow above it.
• Young Sheldon: Just a comedy show to watch during dinner with my family, it is funnier than I expected! Kinda reminiscent to Malcom in the Middle, but the family interactions are so different that its just its own thing, and it works for us.

Device Usage

So, now for how my device usage went in April…

Android

I used my phone for 198 hours

• YouTube for 52 hours—again with the addiction, ugh.
• Tusky for 32 hours—at least its a good addiction.
• Discord for 17 hours—not as great but still fun.
• WhatsApp for 16 hours—actually surprised about this one.
• Cromite for 14 hours—visited a lot of blogs this time.
• Signal for 13 hours—talk to me pls.

Laptop

I used my laptop for a total of 60 hours

• Firefox for 40 hours.
• Alacritty for 9 hours.
• GIMP for 5 hours.
• Discord for 3 hours.
• Signal for 1 hour.
• Inkscape for 3 hours.

E-Reader

I read 1090 pages in the span of 19 hours

• The Machine Stops in 1:21 hours.
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 6:40 hours.
• The Palace of Eternity for 5:20 hours.
• Dune for 5:55 hours.

Finishing thoughts

So, quite a lot of media was consumed during April, I am quite happy about that.

This month might be much less varied, but that’s because I am taking part in #WeblogPoMo2024, where I’ll be writing one post per day! so this is my first post for the challenge, if you decide to join, please let me know!

And, this is day 33 of #100DaysToOffload

https://fosstodon.org/@joel/112369440986260884