It’s time to find out if you can go home again.
How To Support The Blog
Having moved hosting companies from directly going through WordPress to going through Bluehost, I’ve possibly gotten some new readers through the site getting re-indexed. So, while I have included notes at the bottom of each post on how to support the site, I haven’t elaborated any further on those methods. So, here’s a more in-depth list of ways to support me.
Continue readingMy Next Two Let’s Plays
We’re coming up the end of Mark of the Ninja, so it’s time to announce my next couple games – if you’ve been watching my Twitch Channel (http://twitch.tv/countzeroor), you’ll already know what these are, but if you haven’t (and you should) here’s the picks – determined by a semi-unscientific poll on one of the Discord servers I’m on, since I didn’t get any responses on the Patreon. Both of these are games on my Video Game New Year’s Resolution List.
Next up is probably one of the biggest shames on my Pile of Shame—a game that I’ve played extensively, including for Nintendo Power Retrospectives, but never got around to beating (at least not that I remember)—Super Mario World. This Let’s Play is already completely in the bag, with all the videos recorded as of this writing.
After that, continuing my pincer strategy of making my way through both ends of the Final Fantasy series, it’s Final Fantasy XVI, including the DLC.
Please support my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor
Buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/countzero
Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor
Check out my Let’s Plays at https://www.youtube.com/@CountZeroOrPlays
This week, I’ve got an older animer review – Tengoku Daimakiyo (or Heavenly Delusion, as the manga is localized as).
Tengoku Daimakiyo is available for streaming on Hulu/Disney+
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Book Review: The History of Hentai Manga
Kimi Rito’s The History of Hentai Manga is something that is not common in general – an academic text aimed for wider audience on the topic of adult materials which does not approach the topic from what I’ll call a sex-negative perspective. On more than a few occasions I’ve accounted works on sex work and pornography which are sex (and sex worker)-negative, or try to take a neutral perspective and end up on a somewhat patronizing point of view. Certainly, I haven’t encountered any which cover the medium from an art-history standpoint. Kimi Rito’s work does provide what I’d almost call a more art-history point of view – not in the form I’d have chosen, but still an interesting form nonetheless.
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Dragonlance: Shadows of the Dragon Queen Part 6: No Longer “Tacti-cool”
We had a bit of a more role-play heavy chapter this time, somewhat related to some technical difficulties.
Continue readingI’ve finally beaten Xenoblade Chronicles – now it’s time for my thoughts on the game.
I realize partway through the level that this isn’t a ninja stronghold and start over.
Book Review: The Ministry Of Time
The Ministry Of Time, by Kaliane Bradley is, of the recent Sword & Laser picks, the most recent one I’ve finished as of this writing. It was an interesting read, but tonally it’s all over the place.
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Some Quick Thoughts on the Radio Play adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring
Earlier this month, I decided to give a listen to the radio play adaptation of the Fellowship of the Ring from the BBC in the 1980s. Having finished the first installment, I have a few thoughts.
Continue readingI’ve been running Shadow of the Dragon Queen for my D&D Group – so I’m going to discuss the first part of the adventure, including how it went when I ran it.
Affiliate Links:
Please support my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor
Buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/countzero
Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor
Check out my Let’s Plays at https://www.youtube.com/@CountZeroOrPlays
Donation Links…
- To support relief from the Palisades Wildfires: https://www.charitynavigator.org/discover-charities/where-to-give/palisades-fire-2025/
- To support relief and recovery in Ukraine: https://www.charitynavigator.org/discover-charities/where-to-give/ukranian-crisis/
- Donate to Doctors Without Borders: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/get-involved/ways-to-give
- Reproductive Health Care: https://www.charitynavigator.org/search?causes=Reproductive%20health%20care
- Trans Rights: https://www.charitynavigator.org/search/?causes=LGBTQ%20rights
Why I Switched My Hosting from WordPress.com
You may have noticed, in the past few weeks, that my site has been looking a little weird. That it’s had a few visual hiccups in terms of how it looks and is presented. (If you’re only reading everything I write on Patreon, you probably haven’t noticed). That’s because I’ve switched my web hosting from WordPress.com to Bluehost, and I feel it’s worth mentioning why.
A smaller reason why is, honestly, it’s slightly cheaper. I was paying about $300+ a year for my hosting through WordPress.com, in order to get a plan that allowed for advertising (in an attempt to finally reach my Google Adsense payment threshold). I’m paying about $250-ish a year with Bluehost, so that’s significantly less expensive.
The larger reason is that the person who runs WordPress.com, Matt Mullenweg, has been, frankly, acting like a git. He’s been harassing hosting providers and alienating plugin authors. It’s been involved enough that TechCrunch had to write an explainer article. In short, he’s he kind of git that, candidly, is causing problems for the WordPress platform as a whole – to enough of a degree where I can sincerely see WordPress forking, the way that OpenOffice forked to LibreOffice. If that happens, and the fork comes, if I’m still on WordPress.com for hosting, I can’t go either way. So, I’m off WordPress.com, and am now on Bluehost on the foreseeable future.
As a quick note – this has broken Email Subscriptions. In the interim, I’d recommend using RSS, or following my BlueSky or Mastodon accounts.
Book Review: Carl Sagan’s Cosmos
Reviewing something like Carl Sagan’s Cosmos is a tricky proposition. On the one hand, it’s a book by an acclaimed scientist – and more significantly one of the eminent science writers and presenters of the 20th Century. It’s also a companion volume to one of what is considered to be one of the best science television series of all time. Hard stop. On the other hand, it’s hard for me to say that any particular author or work is above criticism or discussion – and I’ll admit we don’t talk about the book the way we talk about the TV show – so I’m going to give it a shot anyway.
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