Hello, everyone. Broke my streak of posting yet again. And yet again, it is because I have been very busy the last couple of weeks. The reason is because my dog is dying. Don’t know when, but it will be pretty soon. Unfortunately, there’s nothing anyone can do about it; there’s no surgery or medication that will help her. She is very old, and her body is shutting down pretty quickly. The sad reality of living in a home where all of your pets are nearing the 20-year mark is that you have to say goodbye to them pretty quick, and I feel like I’ve been doing that every couple years since 2020.
On a personal level, aside from knowing that I will have to say my goodbyes soon, it’s just another frustration that I have. I feel like I’ve spent all year constantly in a Situation. Having my own health problems, and then my own mental problems. Dealing with my mother’s sudden health issues, constant paperwork and bureaucracy, as well as changing her living situation, which is here with me, so get your “lol 37 year old living with their mom” jokes out of the way now. Spent six months thinking my best friend was dead, found out she was merely homeless, then she got a new home and everything was cool, then she recently lost that housing as well, so I’m back to being worried about her and mad at a world that would put someone like her in a situation like that. Now my dog is dying. So, I’m sad to say, I haven’t really been in the mood to do a whole lot. Missed so many self-imposed deadlines this year. Didn’t release any new games. Hell, I still couldn’t even figure out a new name to call myself.
There aren’t that many places to vent anymore. The world has gone completely fucking mad, and a lot of spaces I would be a part of or would like to be a part of are falling apart. There is a problem with finding more than 1-2 places that aren’t riddled with white supremacists, neo-nazis, TERFs, general right-wingers, sexual predators, CM Punk fans, tenderqueers, neoliberals, performative posters that do activist roleplay, South Park Libertarians, AI “artists,” and various other groups of odious ghouls that a perfect society would not have to hear from or about in the coming year.I would post all my complaints and frustrations here, but I’m worried about that being all that I post. I have to sprinkle my negativity in with all the writing and artwork I do; I can’t be in “fuck the world” mode seven days a week.
So despite everything, I will try to fill the second half of this post with some positivity. For one, I feel like I’ve drastically improved my art style. Up until recently, I though I would only ever want to do small, 16×16 sprites. Now I’m doing bigger sprites with more realistic proportions, while still maintaining the Famicom’s graphical limitations. Planning on using these for a non-game related project.
I’ll go ahead and let everyone know what I thought about certain media I’ve consumed this year too.
Stingray Sam
I have owned this movie for many, many years; I sent Cory McAbee money over the internet for both a digital version and the physical DVD sitting on my shelf. However, I never got around to watching it. Probably because I bought it during a time in my life where I simply could not watch a movie alone, despite the fact that I watched The American Astronaut on my own and fucking loved it.
Some months back, a couple friends and I sat down and watching both this and The American Astronaut back-to-back (little bit of trivia about myself: my website URL is slightly paraphrased from that movie’s tagline of “Space Is A Lonely Town” (Cory McAbee is a very influential figure in my life)). Stingray Sam ruled. It was funny, it was creative, and it rekindled my love of pulp sci-fi cowboys with a heart of gold. My friends loved “Fredward,” while I can’t go three seconds without “Mars” playing in my head. Cory McAbee’s latest movie came out recently, and I plan on sitting down and watching that soon.
Astro Boy (2003)
Just to reiterate for the millionth time: I fucking love Astro Boy. I loved the 60’s and 80’s anime adaptations, but I had always stayed away from the 2003 version because I heard it was bad. Those people are fucking wrong! The 2003 version of Astro Boy rules! The animation is amazing, while the character and background designs do such a great job of keeping Osamu Tezuka’s spirit alive. Maybe the only real complaint are a lack of sight gags, with the writing being mildly more serious than the previous versions. I think they good a job modernizing the series, including the battle against Pluto.
SPEAKING OF PLUTO
Pluto
Another one of those things I was not recommended to check out, and to be fair, turning Astro Boy into a gritty crime drama sounds like a recipe for disaster. Well I watched the anime version when it came out and holy shit, it also kicked a lot of ass. I realize that there’s a degree of irony in me absolutely despising AI in real life also loving a series where robots learn to be like people. I guess it’s because I see the robots in these shows as something of a Superman analog? That they’re here to make a point, to remind the people watching of their own humanity, and what humanity could be and should be. Using a science fiction story to hold a mirror to our real world. The world’s strongest robots in Pluto didn’t emerge from their factories with a burning desire to kill everything, it had to be taught to them. They had to learn to hate. Boy, doesn’t that sound a little familiar?
Pikmin 4
In terms of looking at a game’s overall quality; what makes a game good, then Tears of the Kingdom is the best game of 2023. It’s awesome. However, on a personal level, my favorite game of the year is Pikmin 4. It’s weird, because I should probably hate Pikmin 4 for being so different. Pikmin 1 is my favorite Gamecube game, and the main reason for it is that I love the cruel irony of being surrounded by literally 100 little creatures at all times, but still dealing with those crushing feelings of isolation on a strange world. The sequels have added more and more people to the cast, and the newest game gives you a dog companion that can be upgraded to become a metaphorical battle tank. Normally I would not be a huge fan of something like that, but Pikmin 4 had so much charm that disliking the game was impossible.
Baroque
Wrote a whole-ass thing about this game already, go read it.
Other things I liked:
- Hangman vs Swerve 2, where two men homoerotically attacked each other with a staple gun and Hangman drank Swerve’s blood in a totally straight way.
- The same music I’ve been listening to since 2008
- Dark Souls randomizer runs.
- Hot goths, gender doesn’t matter, with feet.
I didn’t mean for this to start as a life update and then become a year in review post, but whatever. Really hoping for a better 2024.
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