May 2026 Summary

Another month goes by, another summary follows. The podcast, videogames and other media I enjoyed during May of 2026!

Oh my, I had already started writing the outline of my weeknotes when I realized the month was over as well! The monthly summary takes precedence here, so let’s get started with it!

May was a very strange month, with a lot of things I got into, like buying my first bicycle (the first one I buy with my money, at least) and riding it around my city. I also returned to a few things I enjoyed during my childhood, so that was nice.

Reading was pretty good, and so was gaming, I am also surprised at how many movies I watched (although four of them are direct to DVD films under an hour so whatever).

Anyway, enjoy the summary!

Podcasts

My podcast usage was a bit different to the usual this time around, with Radio Rental showing up and finally listening to an episode of Wolf 359!

Into the Aether - The weekly releases have been awesome lately. Enjoyable, fun and entertaining as ever. Since I am subscribed via Patreon, I also have access to some super fun short episodes where they talked about how Muppets would work if they were Pokémon.
Clarkesworld Magazine - I finished listening to The Indomitable Captain Holli, the novella I also read on Clarkesworld #211.
Radio Rental - A reader of mine reminded me of this podcast I brought up a while back, and I’ve actually really enjoyed returning to it. I listened to 4 episodes of so.
Trash Taste - Some more episodes and fun shenanigans, although nothing I can’t quite recall, other than their episode on Collecting as a hobby and how it has gone downhill when people do it as an investment instead of fun.
Wolf 359 - Listenend to the special Change of Mind, which is both a prequel and a connection between Season Three and Four of this amazing show.
Darknet Diaries - A few episodes were listened of this one, Episode 174: Pacific Rim. Cool title and story!

Gaming

Well would you look at this, I actually completed a couple of videogames! And made a bunch of progress on CrossCode as well. I am really happy with what I accomplished gameplay-wise.

Completed

Hades - A review of this game is coming soon, there is a lot to say about this masterpice from Supergiant. This story was absolutely fantastic!
Monument Valley: Ida’s Dream - A special chapter with a few bonus levels from the original Monument Valley, it featured some new mechanics too which was surprising, I may write about Monument Valley overall soon.

Ongoing

CrossCode - I am so happy with all the progress I’ve made here, the three-dungeon chapter is over, and now I am waiting for my playmates to catch up with me. The story has been fantastic, the challenge has been incredible fun, everything in this game is awesome.
Minecraft - And here it is, all of a sudden, Minecraft has returned. A friend updated our Minecraft server to the latest version and we have decided to start from scratch in a new world! I can’t believe how far we’ve come. Things are looking good, I played like 5 hours during the month, it’s not much but it was all in just two days of playtime! Good stuff.
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream - The excitement has calmed down a bit, although the fun is not over yet! I saw a lot of new fun moments and interactions, my Mii had a baby with Lucca (from Chrono Trigger) and so many other things happened. I still visit it regularly, but I am not addicted to it.
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite - I went for two new hunts at last. I went for a low rank Tigrex, then a High Rank Yian Garuga. I tried to do a Dual Tigrex quest, but it proved to be too much for my rusty hands. I may try to setup online play again, as PPSSPP has made it even easier than before!
Super Smash Bros Ultimate - I had a lot of fun gaming with friends, it had been a while. The level of everyone is equalizing a bit which makes things a lot more fun, I really need to get better though, I can’t let a kiddo beat me, not yet.
Full Metal Furies - Only played it for a day with my friends, it was fun but the level we did featured some stealth and it was a struggle, we didn’t finish it.
Faster Than Light - Played it one day, made progress on a run, didn’t finish yet though, we played Minecraft afterwards.
UFO 50 - I have been playing this with Wouter, one game a week or so, I am a little behind but I’ve had a lot of fun with it. There is so much variety! I think it’s definitely worth trying, although not all games are for everyone.
Super Mario 3D World - I am in the last world! just collecting stickers and stars with my friends. Hoping to get it over with quickly.

Manga

The clear winner this time around is Heavenly Delusion, I was not sure that it would stick for me, but well, I am basically caught up now.

Heavenly Delusion - Up to chapter 79. I didn’t expect to return to this series and get hooked to it the way I did. I really, really enjoyed reading through the mystery and premise of this one. A post-apocalyptic Japan where terrible monsters roam free. We follow a couple of young protagonists with the mission of finding “Heaven”. At this point of the story, we know what “Heaven” truly is and many other truths have been revealed. Even so, our protagonists continue finding new mysteries and questions without answers yet. Great stuff.
Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You - Up to chapter 62. I started in April and I basically catched up. So now I am waiting for new chapters as they come. The character cast continues to grow and the main relationship has been developed in a very interesting way as well. These past couple chapters hinted at some past memories and a pretty rough situation, we’ll see how it goes.
Spy x Family - Up to chapter 135. This is a series that continues to one-up itself, and it’s always so fun. Each situation has been very funny and ridiculous. It’s the kind of stuff that shouldn’t work as well as it does, the writing is awesome and the characters are just so fun!
Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie - Up to chapter 110. Another return to a fun rom-com with an already defined couple and none of that will-they-won’t-they drama stuff. It’s been pretty cozy and it has had some dramatic moments and emotional situations that I didn’t expect from the rest of the friend group.
Blue Lock - Up to chapter 347. The epic France vs Japan match has come to an end, that was absolutely intense and it ended in the way I expected. Hyped to see how things go from there.

Books

I can’t believe I actually managed to focus and get into a good reading rythm again. This was extremely nice to see, finishing a novella and a short story, and actually making a lot of progress on the main novel I’m on.

Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse #8) by James S.A. Corey - Something got over me where I finally managed to lock in on this novel. I read all the way up to chapter 39, and I am definitely going to be finishing it in June, in the first week, that’s a promise.
Strange Dogs (The Expanse #6.5) by James S.A. Corey - I finished it! I finally completed this, it took me a while to get to it, but when some characters I saw mentioned showed up in the main novel, I decided to go ahead. It was fantastic.
Clarkesworld Magazine #211 by Neil Clarke - I completed another of the short stories. This time it was The Arborist by Derrick Boden. It’s not much but it’s honest work.

Movies

Max Steel is my childhood, and returning to the movies I saw as a kid was actually a delight. Although I must confess some of the first ones I didn’t watch until I was 15 or so. But Countdown and Dark Rival were definitely childhood. I still have a few more to see before I’m done with my parade. The rest of the movies are nice too of course. Hundred Meters and The Intern are the highlights for me.

100 Meters - An absolute masterpiece of animation featuring multiple animation styles, a lot of incredibly detailed moments, a thought-provoking narrative that uses the sport as a metaphor for life itself, and multiple characters representing different world views and ways to deal with it. This was a truly incredible journey packed into true cinematic glory. A must watch.
Max Steel: Endangered Species - Welp, here we begin a bit of a trip down memory lane through my childhood. Psycho and Biocon, Max Steel’s greatest enemies, team up to finally get rid of him and create a new world of mutated humans under their rule, using ancient technology to power a radioactive storm.
Max Steel: Forces of Nature - After Max succedeed on defeating (and killing! very rare on kid’s movies) his enemies. A clone of Biocon with the power to control water (this was before Avatar by the way) shows up! Max Steel must stop him before he can control all of the elements, earth, air, fire, and metal (the coolest toy design after all). Awesome movie and the villain is absolutely terrifying too.
Max Steel: Countdown - Elementor was defeated, but not destroyed. He finds a way to recoverhis energy, but he gets split into five different bodies, each one controlling an element and claiming a different spot of Earth. Max Steel ends up extremely injured, and only survives thanks to his first upgrae, the Adrenalink. Stronger than before, he faces against all five Elementors to try and save the Earth from disaster!
Max Steel: Dark Rival - Elementor is contained, but a new old rival shows up: Troy Winter. After a tragic incident involving a meteorite and a volcano, he turns into Extroyer, capable of extracting life energy and transforming into any creature he absorbs, including humans. Max will have to stop him before he tries to extract more energy and become unstoppable, by giving his all!
The Devil Wears Prada 2 - Watched this with my parents, I was just happy to see Anne Hathaway again, I don’t really remember what all the drama was about but it was fun.
The Intern - Anne Hathaway again! I did like this one a bit more, Robert DeNiro makes for a great intern after all. Some fun moments and a bit of drama too, maybe a bit much sometimes. Either way, I approve of it.
Kung Fu Panda - Just a masterpiece, nothing else to say.
The Mandalorian and Grogu - Star Wars is back on cinemas, and this was very fun and entertaining! A bit of a mish mash of episodes stitched together, to be honest, but really charming nonetheless.

Goals

Finishing thoughts

I think I need to create goals I can actually complete and stop procrastinating. It feels bad to have a list with not check marks actually checked you know?

In any case, good month, great games, awesome childhood movies, some decent reading and a lot of reviews for me to write soon. Looking forward to what June brings! One of those things? Metroid Prime Remastered.

Have a great day dear reader!