Category: Media Diet

Books

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell (Audiobook) – A fairly lightweight blend of monsters and romance, two genres I rarely read, but it was well-written and enjoyable except for the saccharine ending/epilogue.

DragonLance Tales, Volumes 1-3 (The Magic of Krynn, Love and War Kender, Gully Dwarves, and Gnomes ) edited by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman – A re-read from many years ago. I always enjoy visiting Krynn and these stories add color to the world and well-known characters. These were all pretty good, but none of these stories really stood out to me as especially bad or great.

Movies

Jaws – Probably the first time I’ve watched the whole thing since forever ago. It holds up fairly well after 50 years and the well-executed simplicity is in stark contrast to modern movies that feel like they often struggle under the weight of self-inflicted complexity. The Wikipedia page has a lot of details on how difficult the production was, even Spielberg tried to get out of directing it.

Pacific Rim – A favorite of mine and another rewatch, but this time with my son, who is finally old enough to enjoy these types of movies, and he loved it. The level of detail in Del Toro’s movies make them very rewatchable, and Djawadi’s soundtrack is a gem on its own.

Games

Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure – In Progress – If Nintendo made a factory game it would look a lot like this with cute characters and a pretty gentle learning curve. Within the genre it has some interesting ideas, especially around logistics that require and reward thinking and tinkering.

Tower Wizard – Completed – A short (~6 hours) “clicker” that is well-structured. It strikes a good balance between allowing idleness but not requiring it. Fun and definitely worth the few bucks it cost.

Music

Stephen Wilson Jr. – A discovery in the gap since my last post, but Wilson blends outlaw country and 90s alternative with a massive amount of talent to create a lot of great songs. His cover of Stand By Me is nothing short of epic.

Also, since my last update, I’ve started taking guitar lessons with my son! It’s been a fun experience so far.

Sports

Red Sox – This year’s team is interesting in that they appear to be a much better team than last year, but the results don’t back that up. They have a remote chance at the postseason if they can avoid more losing streaks, but given their feast-or-famine rhythm so far that seems unlikely.

In Progress

The Naming Song by Jedediah Berry

Murderbot, Season 1

Lego Masters, Season 5

Books

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson – A decent, light fantasy story set in an interesting world. I haven’t read Sanderson since Mistborn (and haven’t gotten to where he took over Wheel of Time yet) but my assessment of him as a someone in the model of Stephen King (prolific, reliable, mild) holds up.

Movies

Morbius – Wasted opportunity.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie – Exceeded my high expectations.

Games

Dyson Sphere Program (continued) – I’ve keep chipping away at this, going far beyond I have in the past and chipping away at achievements. The end game isn’t terribly strong, but in the game’s defense, they haven’t finished it yet. I’d love to see them close the loop with technology and development and bring it around to where you’re working towards some kind of infinite loop or singularity.

Television

Slow Horses, Season 1 – I generally favor single-threaded stories that focus on craft, details, and execution rather than checking every box, and this show was very much that. Despite being slightly awkward and somewhat slow for a spy “thriller”, I enjoyed it.

Mayor of Kingstown, Season 2 – The first season was kind of a mess, but hinted at a clearer “now that we got that settled (with copious violence of course, because Taylor Sheridan)” second season. Instead, it just got messier. This is a world that is both implausibly violent and implausibly ordered, and draws a connection between those two things that feels more like fascist fantasy than storytelling. I bailed after a few episodes.

The Mandalorian, Season 3 – A disappointing but fortunately conclusive end to arcs started in prior seasons. The charm and adventure of the earlier episodic stories was forgotten in service to a grand arc that it was hard to really care about.

Sports

Red Sox – Expectations are low this year for the Red Sox for a number of reasons, so it was fun to watch them outperform for most of April.

Boston Bruins (playoffs) – I’m not a hockey fan, but my son is interested in playing, so I figured I’ll get interested in watching. To my untrained eye, the heavily-favorited and record-breaking Bruins just didn’t look like a better team than the bottom-seeded Florida Panthers that they ended up losing to, but I at least got a sense of hockey’s unique flavor of drama and tension.

In Progress

Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan – Grind. Grind. Grind

I spent more time on fitness this month than I have in a long time, and that left less room for media, which is fine by me!

Books

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky – I wanted to like this book more than I did because it was innovative (spiders as main characters?!) but it took a bit of an effort to finish it. The writing is dry and heavy, sometimes boring, the characters were pretty shallow, and the ending was a poor return on the time invested.

Games

Dyson Sphere Program (replay)– In what has become an annual tradition, I played through one of my all-time favorite games for the third time, which is probably a record for me. There weren’t a lot of improvements over last year, just some tweaks, but each time I’ve gone further and faster. If they release the big “combat” update this year I may not wait until next year to do it again.

Television

Ted Lasso, Season 2 – It’s always great to see a good show get better, and Lasso did just that. With one exception (Episode 9, which completely missed it’s mark) it was improved and refined. The excellent casting paid off as previously lesser characters stepped up and new characters fit in seamlessly.

Sports

World Baseball Classic – This is the first time I’ve watched any serious amount of the WBC, in large part thanks to friendly time-zones, and it was fantastic. I’d love to see better pitching, most of the MLB’s top players weren’t allowed to participate, but it was still great baseball.

Red Sox (Spring Training) – Prior to the WBC, I also watched more of this than perhaps I ever have, and it was nice in a very casual way. I’m not terribly hopeful of the Red Sox chances this year, but I’m generally more excited about baseball than I have been in many years.

In Progress

Didn’t finish these in March so I’ll update when I do.

• Mandalorian, Season 3
• Crossroads of Twilight
• Mayor of Kingstown

Upcoming

Some things I’m hoping to read/watch/play soon:

• Succession, Season 3
• Ted Lasso, Season 3 

Books

Ghost Pirate Gambit by Jessie Kwak – A fun space heist book. Nothing terribly surprising or disappointing, just a nice easy reading adventure.

Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan – I suffered through this one in service of trying to complete the series. Way too many characters and way too little story.

Movies

Ant-Man: Quantumania – OK

Bullet Train – A hyperviolent but well-built and fun “on a train” movie.

Games

Stacklands – A great little village builder for only $5. It lets you play enough cards that it gets unwieldy, but I suspect that’s not an accident and wants you to adapt your play style to desired tidiness.

Sons of the Forest – A popular survival craft game that just couldn’t get me interested enough to deal with the lack of guidance. Personally I find games that think it’s fun to figure out how to play rarely deliver, so I returned it after 2 hours.

Television

1923, Season 1 – A stunted epic that lacks the grace of 1888 and the spirit of Yellowstone. For a show with a scheduled two season run, it also didn’t end as far a long as I’d hoped, so the next season will likely feel a little rushed and end in a violent spectacle.

Ted Lasso, Season 1 – A good show that is trying to do a “meaningful” comedy but just missing the mark. The foundation is good though, and it is pleasantly more like a tightly-edited hour-long show than a half-hour show.

Upcoming

Some things I’m hoping to read/watch/play soon:

• Mandalorian, Season 3
• Children of Time
• Succession, Season 3