I continue taking down the anti-air batteries.
Notes on Watching Anime With My Parents
One of the things you normally don’t think about when talking about watching anime, is watching anime with your parents. It often comes up as something to be avoided – as opposed to something to be embraced, particularly with the amount of sex that comes up in Anime. However, once you get older, it gets a bit easier to talk about watching anime with your parents – and it helps if your parents are long-time fans of Speculative Fiction. So, with that in mind, I figure I’d give an update on how it’s gone, and give some notes on some of the shows we’ve watched.
Read more4 New Holy Grails of Anime
Since I did my last Anime Holy Grails video, pretty much most of the works on that list have been licensed in some form or another. So, it’s time to revisit the list.
Read moreWhere I Play Halo Infinite: Part 36 – Anti-Air Umbrella II
Where I Play Halo Infinite: Part 35 – Repair Citadel III
We takedown the Repair Citadel, and rejoin the mission to take down the Banished anti-air batteries in progress.
Vlog: The 2023 Hugo Award Mess
Some technical difficulties on my end meant that I had to do another vlog style video, so it’s time to stay semi-topical and talk about the recent 2023 Hugo Award backlash.
Where I Play Halo Infinite: Part 34 – Repair Citadel II
Where I Play Halo Infinite: Part 33 – Repair Citadel I
NextGen #40 (April 1998)
It’s April of 1998, but NextGen isn’t doing the April Fools Day nonsense. Instead, they have a preview for another big game from Hideo Kojima (appropriate considering Kojima just announced a new game as of this writing).
Read moreVideo Game Review: Marvel’s Midnight Suns
When I put out my list of New Year’s Resolutions for games (in addition to Anime), I expected some of these to take a while, even the ones that were joined in progress. What I did not anticipate was getting iced in for a week during Awesome Games Done Quick, so I decided to spend some of that time (since I wasn’t working on work), playing a turn-based game on the side, so I could split my attention – and over a week I ended up plowing through what I had left of Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Now, that was about 8 hours a day for 7 days, or about 56 hours, and I was at Act 2, so I still had a ways to go. However, this does give me some high hopes for meeting my Resolutions for the year.
Read moreBook Review: Shining Girls
January’s book pick for the Sword & Laser Book Club, Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, is almost something that would have worked better as an October book pick. It’s a story that features a serial killer as an antagonist who can move independently of the rest of us in the time stream – only this one can go back and forth, as opposed to only moving forward, never aging, like the killer in NOS4A2. It’s an interesting story though, though I don’t quite know if it’s my cup of tea (though not for reasons I think the author intended).
Read moreSlight Break in the Halo Let’s Play
So, the Let’s Play is going to take a very short break due to some technical difficulties. My tale of woe lies below the cut.
Read moreBook (Vlog) Review: System Collapse
I’ve fallen a little behind on my next Nintendo Power Retrospectives episode, so let’s talk about the new Murderbot novel!
Where I Play Halo Infinite: Part 32 – New Base of Operations
Where I Play Halo Infinite: Part 31 – Flying Monkeys
Book Review: What Abigail Did That Summer
The second of the Rivers of London novellas I’m reviewing at the moment is one from significantly earlier than Winter’s Gift, and set at basically the opposite time of the year. What Abigail Did That Summer goes back in the timeline to Foxglove Summer, and checks in with what was going on in London, with Peter’s cousin Abigail getting to know the Foxes, and going on some adventures of her own.
Read moreAnime Explorations Episode 16: Thunderbolt Fantasy Season 2
David and Tora are out sick, but I’m joined by Tom Merritt (https://www.tommerritt.com/), to discuss the second season of Thunderbolt Fantasy!
Book Review: Winter’s Gifts
While I’m caught up on the Rivers of London novels, I’ve fallen behind on a couple of the novellas – at the end of 2023, I decided to get caught up on those novellas. The first I decided to get caught up on was Winter’s Gifts. The novel focuses on Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds (first appearing in Whispers Underground), and introduces the demimonde of the United States to the series, the same way that The October Man introduced the demimonde of Germany.
Read moreWhere I Play Halo Infinite: Part 30 – Worse Than The Flood
Where I Play Halo Infinite: Part 29 – Harbinger of Destruction
Vlog: The Golden Age of TRPGs Isn’t Over
I give my thoughts on an opinion piece by Ben Riggs (author of “Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons”) about how the Golden Age of RPGs has ended by moving away from a D&D 5e focused monoculture – and argue that he’s not just a little wrong – he’s a lot wrong.
Where I Play Halo Infinite: Part 28 – Descent Into the Depths of the Ring
Where I Play Halo Infinite: Part 27 – Explosive Shutdown
Book Review: Kings of the Wyld
December’s Sword & Laser Book Club pick was a Dungeon Fantasy novel, Kings of the Wyld, one that takes a different spin on the “Adventuring Band” concept – treating the “Band” idea like a rock band.
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