Owning up to an Unnecessary Rant—Sunday Ink for July 30th, 2023

I don't have a picture or a screenshot for this post and know how links on social media go for the first applicable image, including video thumbnails, I decided to give another video of the week to John Rogers with a thumbnail that is thematically relevant. I'll probably get around to watching it tomorrow... 

I'm not fond of using social media to complain about petty issues about the day nor do I like being too harsh in reviewing a piece of media, professionally or otherwise. Of course, we're all human and I found myself composing a thread on Mastodon a couple of weeks ago that bashed the podcast, Threedom, which I recommended in a previous blog post. I deleted the thread shortly after since, again, I felt like I was being too critical in a way that was highly unfair and projected my own cynicism onto people who might not have contempt for their audience. 

Also, I did genuinely enjoy the first episode I listened to—and for someone who is not the biggest fan of stand-up comedy, this says something! 

I think a part my reaction from the Mastodon thread in question was my own self-consciousness at barely knowing any stand-up comedians outside of CheapShow guests, Jon Oliver*, British panel shows like Mock the Week and Would I Lie to You, and of course the controversial players** in American stand-up who frequently punch down and usually promote misinformation. 

So to hear what I thought was contempt for their audience in "3 Chuckies" with (I believe) Scott's remark about how their "[...]audience should be grateful that we do this podcast standing up," and what I took to be them being privileged enough to alienate a potential audience with Lauren's remark about how if she had to introduce herself one more time on the pod then "F— you" (yes, I'm still paraphrasing) in the Threevisiting episode, "Do You Even Know Gyms", made me believe that American stand-up mostly consists of either complete jerks or those political grifters who trended on Twitter for being "against the status quo" in all the wrong ways.

I truly believe that is not the case and if you know any American stand-ups that I should watch or listen to, feel free to suggest them in the comments! 

Those remarks, though, also brought me to the MsMadLemon video that I mentioned in the Mastodon thread where, among other things, she noted about some content creators react to gifts sent in by fans. And I linked the wrong one in the thread, so here's the actual video in question...

The bit I'm referring to starts at the 6 minute mark and, while the discussion is mostly unrelated, I would still give it your consideration—alongside the follow up video. Maybe it's because of how I've been mostly drawn to indie creators—whether it's podcasts like CheapShow, or musicians like Pocket Vinyl and Banjo Guy Ollie—that I took it personally more than I should have. That remark and the Threevisiting "F— you" still rile me up when considering how every independent artist and content creator goes to great lengths to promote their work to others and appreciates their audience—even more so when considering how the community behind said work gives that admiration back twofold.       

Maybe I picked the wrong episodes to listen to when trying to get back into the podcast, but I get the feeling that the Threedom and Comedy Bang Bang style of humor is not for me. I actually considered buying the Comedy Bang Bang book that recently came out figure said style out, but my gut told me no, more or less. Other opinions are available and it goes without saying that CBB probably has some sort of community out there. 

I'll leave that ramble there and move on to more positive things...

Additional Pods in the Queue?

• Shrink the Box, in which Ben Bailey Smith and Sasha Bates do some psychoanalytic literary theory magic on television's protagonists
• The Channel84 Variety Show in which Tom and Rob geek out about whether it's sci-fi, nostalgia, television and film, or even the goings on in their own lives

I unfortunately don't have a link list so I'll leave it there for now. Have a good evening!   

An Updated Review Timeline and a Brief Amiibo Addiction—Ink for July 28th, 2023

Urban planning makes the best of geographic oddities. —Captured on Switch (Handheld Mode) 

I'm changing the timeline again with regards to rest of summer's reviews partly because of the usual culprit—although that's game's mostly wrapped up (for now)—but also because of one addition to the roster.   

I'm still working on reading through Goldeneye 007: The Making of an N64 Classic by Alyse Knorr and should still be on target to have a review written and published here next month. Islets will also be a review for late-August (or early September), but I'm also tacking on another game which evokes the same laid-back, summer feel. It also revolves around islands with a related namesake, Islanders: Console Edition, and was recommended to me by Ivenne, a friend of the blog and the creator behind the [Un]Official CheapShow Magazine! 

I'm aiming for somewhere between 750-1250 words for the combination review and there will be scores. (Spoilers: They're both fun!)   

As for the last item in the queue, I'm aiming to read and review The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane sometime in September.    

So that's the admin done, I thought I'd talk about what the Tears of the Kingdom shenanigans hath wrought... 

Top: A Solid Cast of Links—from the 8-Bit beginnings (rightmost) to when he composed music at sea (leftmost)—with a spider-esque robot lurking nearby.
Bottom: A Better look at the Windwaker Link & Zelda alongside the princess from her Skyward Sword days. —Both taken with an iPhone 8    

One of the things I didn't expect to do while playing this game was to break out the wallet for additional Amiibo figurines. These Amiibos have a Near-Field Communication (NFC) chip located at the base designed to interact with the NFC chip on a Joy-Con or an official Switch Pro controller to allow players to further enjoy additional features with particular games. In both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, they provide a cache of resources alongside a treasure chest containing either a normal weapon or shield, a gemstone, or an exclusive piece of armor related to the Amiibo in question.

Thing is, even if they said there was a restock on Zelda Amiibos upon the game's release, I never thought to take advantage of it. Then again, I wasn't really in the market for them beforehand—I had the 8-Bit Link one already alongside an 8-Bit Mario figure, the Metroid Dread dual-pack, and Mr. Game & Watch—since most of the games I played either didn't use them or had Amiibo-only features that I felt like I didn't need. The ones I already had were close to the regular retail price that the Nintendo Life article lists for the reissued Links (around US $14.99) with the exception of the Metroid dual-pack that was closer to US $30.

But when I found the Link from Majora's Mask on Amazon for around US $38 when it scalpers usually sell it for way over US $100, I can't say no to a figurine from what is my favorite Zelda game of all time! 

Here's the thing, you don't need these Amiibos if you're looking for exclusive armor and weapons in Tears of the Kingdom. You can find chests in caves and the Depths where you can net them without having to shell out money to a scalper or braving a games store as someone over thirty looking for what could be called a kid's toy. Without spoiling anything, the trek is worth it alone no matter how you end up finding them!

...and that concludes my Tears of the Kingdom ramble. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!    

Red Team Blues—A Literary Fork in Proper Sterling

I love the book covers for Cory's books and this one is no exception! —Taken with an iPhone 8 

From Bitcoin to the Blockchain and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Web3 is a source of both fascination and scandal throughout the past decade. Yet much like the moniker itself—which advocates say is a fork of Web 3.0*—the concept behind these solely digital “artifacts” is a task that only becomes more complicated as one tries to break down and define them. With cryptocurrency in particular, there have been reporters who documented its history—Nathaniel Popper wrote an account on Bitcoin in his 2016 book, Digital Gold—but what happens when you put crypto in a fictional setting where the “coins” take center stage?  

Red Team Blues is the latest novel from science fiction author, Cory Doctorow, which is also his first foray into thrillers with a reverse-chronological twist. It is a book that gives cryptocurrency the coin toss into the world of fiction with the help of its main character, forensic accountant Martin Hench. He might have a monotonous-sounding occupation, but his career has been anything but courtesy of his “red team” approach—seeking the weak point in security systems in order to expose scams and frauds for his clients. While his career may have been low-key, this book shows him at his peak as he contemplates retirement from his $800,000 tour bus, the Unsalted Hash. Yet, he finds himself with one more gig for his old friend and client, Danny Lazer, who wants Hench to find some cryptographic keys lying around on a laptop's hard drive.

Even when he finishes that job, its not truly over and Hench finds himself under the threat of his retirement being whisked away.

Cyberpunk novels may suffer from complicated, technical prose for reasons that cannot be helped, but Doctorow managed to keep me in suspense without getting bogged down in jargon. Hench, may be more of a tell, don’t show person, but it keeps the narrative anchored and moving while keeping the technical explanations as simple as possible. Not for a moment did I feel lost in this book and having Hench and Lazer explain cryptocurrency in a discussion was a huge help—not just in explaining the concept in full, but how it drives Martin Hench’s career alongside Lazer’s. Everything that would otherwise be a complicated mess gets linked together in the closest thing to a graceful looking daisy-chain of cables.   

The same thing can be said for how this books lays out Martin Hench’s life, but substitute the shortfalls of cyberpunk with the lack of an info-dump deluge. Everything about Martin Hench’s life—his friends and personality—makes sense throughout the narrative with just his monologue and ongoing conversations alone. I ended up being invested in Hench’s personal relationships as he fought for his life and it made the ending even more satisfying.

 Red Team Blues is a novel that manages to provide a clear glimpse into the life on a forensic accountant in what would be the last book of a normal trilogy without spoiling too much, if not anything. Hench’s speciality in dealing with cryptocurrency helps break down what these “coins” really are without the need to scrawl through social media chatrooms and web forums, or reading historical accounts like Digital Gold. Both of these aspects make Red Team Blues into a book I would recommend to anyone who wants to give cyberpunk a fair shot.   

In Sum: If this were any sort of currency, it would be solid gold—5 out of 5 Stars

If you already enjoyed the book, or like Wil Wheaton, he does the narration for the audiobook! 

*Or some sort of fork from the World Wide Web whether it's Web 1,2, or 3.0.

The Shenanigans Won Out in the End...

Much like Return to Monkey Island, the uploaded screenshots won't do Islets any justice—Captured on Switch (Handheld Mode)  

Tears of the Kingdom has been my go-to game for the past couple months and, even if I did manage to do a playthrough of Islets in-between sessions, I don't think I could give a proper review to the indie metroidvania. I started writing a draft yesterday with an intro that (ideally) would transition from praising an open-world game for not having an overwhelming narrative to how Islets evokes a similar feeling for a metroidvania game, but it felt way too ambitious. It probably wouldn't make much sense either. 

I also made a post on Mastodon a couple weeks ago saying that I was on track for both reviews and, I admit, I got ahead of myself. 

In short, I'm pushing back almost everything...

• I'll have a review of Islets up by late July, meaning that I can do a full playthrough on Normal and a more in-depth one on Hard
• Red Team Blues will be a review for earlier in the month while moving Alyse Knorr's Goldeneye 007: The Making of an N64 Classic back into August. (Although it could also be a late July review as well...)
• I'm still aiming for August to finish reading and review The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane for the blog alongside Knorr's book

Hope you all are having a great summer so far!  

A Glimpse Into What Summer Will Look Like This Year...

A in-depth look into the history of James Bond's Nintendo 64 debut, a cyberpunk thriller, and a Metroidvania that takes place in the sky— Taken with an iPhone 8

Sunday won again, but that was more or less me getting distracted by Tears of the Kingdom, which has been a beautiful experience that can sometimes be a little overwhelming. I'm not going to spoil anything here, but I did write a small thread on Mastodon with my initial thoughts on the game. The individual posts are all behind sensitive content filters, but the first one is spoiler-free and provides a window into my foray back into Hyrule. That, and it also highlights the way I played through Breath of the Wild along with how I approach open-world games.

I'll end up writing a few more posts on the game there as I play it, but for the next game review, we'll be going to a different set of sky islands!

Earlier into the year, I decided to sign up for the Super Rare Club, which is a service from Super Rare Games that more or less allows you to pre-order games earlier than the general public alongside a few other perks like exclusive merch. They are a company that specializes in physical games—like Strictly Limited and Limited Run—but solely focus on indie developers who might otherwise be overlooked. I've been a fan since I stumbled upon Project Warlock, which was Jakub Cislo's take on Doom that added role-playing game elements into the mix (plus magic spells). Some of my favorite Switch games are straight from Super Rare Games's physical releases—The Lion's Song and The Flower Collectors from Mi'Pu'Mi Games, Horace, Deponia (eventually in its entirety), and Dicey Dungeons to name a few. 

So when they announced Islets alongside the featured trailer, I thought that it would be right up my alley between the genre and an art style that fits itself gracefully between Hollow Knight and Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom. 

My plan is to do a run on easy mode first to get the full narrative experience while getting a feel for the exploration and gameplay mechanics. Then, I'll do a playthrough on normal to see how difficult the bosses and combat become to provide a (more) proper review. 

I'm aiming for late-June to write and publish the review—possibly July if I'm sidetracked by more Tears of the Kingdom shenanigans. (Although, I feel like I've made enough progress to take a little break.)  

As for the books...

There was a tie in the results between Cory Doctorow's Red Team Blues and Alyse Knorr's Goldeneye 007: The Making of an N64 Classic. I though that, instead of doing a tiebreaker poll, I would read and review both books starting with Red Team Blues and then doing Goldeneye 007 with the review for the former being slated for June. I'm aiming for July for the latter...

...and I'll also be doing a review of The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane in August—or July if I finish reading it before then. 

Thank you to everyone who voted in the polls! I think this will be an excellent summer for blogging! 

A Slight Break for the Kingdom (And More Importantly Myself)

"The Machine Rises Once Again. Welcome to Turrican, Link!" —Taken with an iPhone 8

So the past few weeks have been surprisingly busy on the blog between finally deciding to write out a long overdue review, and having the opportunity to critique someone else's books. The latter being one of those out-of-the-blue moments that I'll always appreciate and, again, I'd like to thank Jaz Jazalyn for giving me the chance to read and review them for the blog. It was a good challenge and a nice change of pace for what I usually read.    

Thing is, I'm having some burnout from all the blogging so the rest of May will be more relaxed. I already dedicated some hours over the weekend to the recently released Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. which is both a therapeutic and challenging game. Of course, the figurine of Bren McGuire or the Turrican dude in the photo is from an order that, three years later, has finally made its way to my home. More on Tears and Turrican later...

I'll still do an entry around Sunday and possibly sneak in a blog post on Puffins near the end of the month. In the meantime, I'm going to be running two separate polls on both Twitter and Mastodon as to what I should review next. One will be for video games and the other will be for books so expect two long-form critiques in June*. So here's what on each poll:

Video Games

• Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom—The sequel to Breath of the Wild and the second open-world Zelda game in which the sky is the limit and then some 
• Turrican Anthology—The personally long-awaited set of games developed by Factor 5 and published by Strictly Limited that bring titles from the Amiga, Genesis/Mega Drive, and the Super Nintendo, to modern consoles
• Islets—A metroidvania from Kyle Thompson, in which an explorer traverses sky islands, looking for ways to reunite them
• Heaven Dust Collection—Two survival horror games from Indienova where you must escape either an isometric mansion or research institute

Note: For the Turrican review, I will do a brief look at the items in the Ultra Collectors Edition alongside the games themselves. 

Books

• The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane by Kelly Harms—A rom-com (of sorts) in which two women, similarly named, believe they won a house up in Maine 
• Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow—a cyberpunk thriller that focuses on cryptocurrency and global finance
• In Other Words edited by Mainspring Arts—an anthology of stories from writers across the autistic spectrum
• Goldeneye 007: The Making of an N64 Classic by Alyse Knorr—one of the latest books from Boss Fight Games that takes a deep dive into a well-known 1990s video game tie-in

If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment below!  

I hope you all are having a wonderful week! 

*Or one in June and the other in July depending on which game wins the poll.

Hollow: A Love Like A Life—A Voyage Into Cosmic Romance

No glare and not as pixelated this time. Also, no overhead light. —Taken with an iPhone 8

Much like being around a crush or speaking in a public forum, I am very nervous about reviewing a romance novel for the first time. It is not even the just matter of it being outside of my comfort zone for my gender—Christine Sneed wrote some good novels which focused on relationships—but its something that I never even considered. I do not think it is a secret that love stories get a bad rap whether in literature, television, or film for presumably lackluster (or rather, generic) writing. Yet, this novel in verse has the power to change that paradigm while making my first journey into the genre go a little more smoothly than I thought.

Hollow: A Love Like A Life is a romance novel in poetry written by Jaz Jazalyn where two spirits, hailing from completely different universes, find themselves in love with one another. The laws that govern both universes, however, prevent them from properly meeting each other, which gives the illusion that their love is completely impossible. Yet, they still both yearn for each other and by the end, manage to make the best out of an improbable situation. It is not exactly a book with a happy ending, but their love is far from unrequited.  

I initially got myself lost at first, unable to make the distinction between the light and shadow spirits. I thought that it was similar to vVilrRuUsS: I Never Forget, where the lack of direction was intentional, leaving the reader to decided who the spirits are in each poem. Then I read it again and paid attention to the section titles. This time, the sense of confusion faded out between the sections “Dreaming of the Light” and “Dangerous Skies”. The distinction is made clear, even if only for a brief moment, and the shadow spirit provides some clarity as to how they fell in love with each other in the poem “Strange Eve”. Their romance may be forbidden, but fate works in strange ways no matter what universe one resides in.

Once these sections pass, the difference between light and dark is rendered unclear once again as they become more enamored with each other. There is the spark of inspiration, the wish for a chance to meet, the encounters within their own dreams, followed by intensifying feelings that prompt both jealousy and doubt between the spirits. All things which, in a reality-based romance novel, may be symbolized by antagonistic characters, unfortunate accidents, and strict families among other things. Yet, there is little mention of those aspects in Hollow, which added to the tension to their relationship and lack thereof.

An aspiring reader may wonder how these spirits manage to maintain a strong bond if they cannot communicate across universes. Much of it comes across as inferred telepathy, and one poem titled “Infinity” suggests that one does end up imitating the other. Another set of poems near the end of the novel suggest that their telepathy ends up manifesting itself through text messages and social media posts. This would be the closest thing to them properly meeting each other, meaning that whatever secret language they use evolves throughout the narrative. It may not make sense, but Jaz Jazlyn puts the same level of ambition into making their relationship work as she did to ensure that no account was left behind in vVilrRuUsS’s large-scale apocalypse. That level of dedication makes this supernatural love story into something both emotional and heartwarming.

Jazalyn’s proper romance novel also comes with some solid, inspirational pieces of verse, One of my personal favorites is the poem, “I Changed After Loving You”, where the spirts reflect on how their chance encounter inspires them for the better. I feel like this idea could apply to any relationship or long-lasting friendship where meeting them carries that very same effect. Even if things do not end up working with the person that they like or were friends with, that initial impact is the potential driving force for something better especially if they look solely at the positive. For the spirits, this reflection only renews their faith in each other regardless as to how many universes divide them.

The other poem that personally stood out was “Who I Really Am”, in which the spirits promise to be completely honest with each other—flaws and all. I feel, in a universal sense, this is the most difficult and nerve-wracking thing to do, even if your ideal self in a relationship is your genuine self. I think part of it also comes from fearing disapproval not just from partners but friends, co-workers, and family as well—even for the simplest of differences. These anxieties do not bother the spirits since their genuine honesty acts as a sort of buffer for the emotional intensity they experience as their relationship develops.     

From a novel on self-love to a full-on romance in poetry, Jaz Jazlyn captures the reader’s heart through her ambitious tale where light desires an encounter with shadow. These spirits carry that determination throughout Hollow: A Love Like A Life to ensure that they can reach some sort of happily ever after—even if the path there is somewhat meandering. It is a love story may be a better fit with Neil Gaiman’s books than with other romance writers, but this cosmic, sentimental tale stands on its own with each verse lighting the night sky as part of a constellation.  

In Sum: Not a Bad Start to a Cruise Across the Stars—3.5 out of 5 

Hollow: A Love Like A Life is available through book retailers including Barnes & Noble and Amazon.