Constituent Service by John Scalzi A small novella by John Scalzi. Was debating whether or not to even write about it, it’s more of a snack than a meal. But people like snacks. Scalzi seems to be eschewing serious stuff like Lock In and The Collapsing Empire for humorous science fiction (at least in terms of what he’s producing). I don’t know what the market is like for that genre, but I enjoyed this story. It’s like an episode of a TV show, or maybe a pilot, with some sitcom one-note characters (not a slight–you don’t need heavy character development in comedy) solving a low-stakes mystery. This takes place in…
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The Books I Read: January – February 2025
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Essentially, the pitch for this book is “What if The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was a scientist?” or “What if Bones was Betty Crocker?”. It’s a fun and clever romp, but it’s so trapped in antiquated tropes it’s like reading history. I read to discover the new and different. I want what’s innovative and creative, not what’s already been tread on. The fact that this takes place in the 1950s is bad enough, but it contains all the old pastiches, especially regarding women in the workplace (e.g. sexual assault by a boss, women not being able to break the glass ceiling, being fired for being…
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The Commodore 64 Game Therapy
A long long time ago, when I was but a wee bairn, my grandfather owned a Commodore 64 computer. That’s pretty unusual for a guy born in 1921, served in WWII and the Korean War, to be embracing the technological age so early. He had a PC before our family had a PC. And my dad was a mainframe guy–he got a job in tech when they were still using punch cards and big old magnetic tape storage. Anyway, I would rather play on the computer than listen to my parents and grandparents talk. Because that’s all they did. And they didn’t have any fun stuff like my maternal grandparents…
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The Books I Read: July – August 2024
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak(re-read) I know this is sacrilege for an author, but watch the movie first. When I first tried to read this, I didn’t “get it”. The narrator is erratic, seems to have synthesia, lives in multiple times, and is always flashforwarding. This makes the book difficult to read if you don’t know the plot going in. I couldn’t grasp the basic storyline when I was being told so-and-so is going to die later on. It’s like when you pass something around in class. You got one person looking at the object, the person in the desk next to you is leaning over to look at…
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Things I Like: Chants of Sennar
I haven’t talked about video games lately, but I’ll talk about this one. These days I find myself gravitating towards smaller indie games rather than Triple AAA big shots like Nier: Automata or Starfield or Dragon’s Dogma. Who the hell wants to play one video game forever? That’s like eating the same thing for dinner over and over and over. I want to be exposed to all kinds of experiences. Unique ones. Artistic ones. But with the glut of games on Steam these days (seriously, just look at their “New and Trending” list) how am I supposed to discern what’s good from bad? The Triple AAA games always get the…
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Maybe It’s Us (Why Is Recent Movies and TV So Disappointing)
Are my expectations too high? Is it wrong to have high expectations of media? They can make magic… so why aren’t they? Why does it feel like everything anticipated in the last year/year and a half has been a disappointment? Why are they filling the void with Space Jam 2 and Trolls 3 and Five Nights at Freddy’s and another Saw movie and another Fast and Furious movie and Blue Beetle and Shazam 2 and another Indiana Jones and Disney live-action remakes and, of course, anything from Marvel. MOVIES Avatar 2 was more of the same, another bloated military rah-rah explosions and gunsfest. Lightyear puts its message before the story.…
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The Truth About the Mario Movie That We Need to Acknowledge
Look, the truth is, I didn’t much care for the new Mario movie. Granted, it’s for a different audience than a forty-year-old cis white software developer. It’s for the kids who think Minions are the shizznit and that the cops are like Paw Patrol. It’ll be on in the background of daycares for years to come with its bright and colorful visuals and catchy sound. But its storytelling is thinner than Kate Moss standing next to Cara Delevingne. Bowser does nothing but sing “peaches” over and over again. The maguffin has less of a purpose than the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. Why do the Penguins have it? Why are there…
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The Books I Read: March – April 2023
Circe by Madeline Miller This was attempt number two at reading. Not the book’s fault, it was me. At the time, I wasn’t in the headspace to read something heavy and steeped in the Classics. But now, Greek mythology is having a renaissance (or did it ever disappear?) with God of War, Hades, Lore Olympus. That, combined with my own ambition to write a book about Medusa, I felt I had to give this one a second try for research. Madeline Miller is obviously versed in classics and Greek mythology so the text is not easy. I mean, it’s not Proust or anything, but you will feel like an adult…
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Late to the Game: Overwatch & Horizon: Zero Dawn & Monster Hunter: World
So I want to talk about three games I’ve played recently. First, Overwatch. Ever since I got my new computer, I wanted to play this game. I frickin’ love the lore and stories and comics and videos around it, I thought “this must be an awesome game”. And though I expected that what’s actually in the game might be subdued compared to what’s in Blizzard’s videos, it was still worth playing. Not like Five Nights at Freddy’s or World of Warcraft. The story’s not just subdued, it’s completely absent. There’s a complete novel’s worth from these dynamic characters, but it’s nowhere in the game. There’s not even a campaign mode.…
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Late to the Game: Resident Evil 6
What a load. The start of the game is bonkers-go-nuts. It throws you in the middle of a terrorist/zombie attack with no instructions on where to go or how to play or why you’re there. It’s been a while since I played Resident Evil 5 and I just finished Resident Evil 2 so I’m used to its slower pace. But all of a sudden I’m falling out of a helicopter and climbing up skyscrapers. What kind of tutorial is this? Can you not give me at least a little context? Mise en Scene is for movies, not video games. Plus I hate when they throw you in without a chance…
