It’s been just about a year since I purchased The Witcher 3 from GOG.com and I have finally finished the DLC content. The Blood and Wine expansion like getting a completely new game world to explore. Worth every penny. But alas, I think it’s time to uninstall this fantastic game. I suppose I could keep going to try to complete all the achievements but my time and SSD space is limited. For now I will patiently await the release of Cyberpunk 2077. On the up-side, I will never be forced to play a boring round of Gwent again.
Sowell is always an interesting read. However, I find that he can be a bit repetitive in his points from book to book—I get it, minimum wage laws are dumb. Yet, despite his persistence, nobody appears to be listening (it’s no surprise that in interviews he is quite pessimistic about the future). But for all his repetition, there are always a few nuggets of novel insights in each of his essays. My favorite from this book is his observation that demographic statistics seem to ignore average ages of various statistical groupings. When the average age of a particular group is 18–25 you are going to see more criminal behavior on average because most criminals, not matter their race, fall into that age group. There are some other good bits about birth order affecting outcomes and the self-sorting of communities.
A collection of 50s and 60s rock and roll instrumentals from Buffalo Bop. At times a little bit Link Wray and other times a little bit surfy with a some piano-banging rock and roll thrown in the mix as well.
I’m not quite sure why this movie was so popular when it came out. I remember hearing that they watched it in an English class in my high school even though there was a bit of nudity in it (was there a PG rated cut I’m forgetting about?). It’s pretty corny and almost sounds like the actor’s voices were dubbed. There’s a bit of Zardoz lingering here, but not enough to make it fun to watch. It’s like all the budget went into polishing the armor. All that said, I feel like this one might improve with repeated viewings. For now, meh.
This one was a freebie from GOG.com of which I knew nothing about before playing it. Turns out, it is a 2.5-D platformer—meaning, it’s a 3-D rendered game but you only move in the standard two dimensions of a classic platformer. I’m not a huge fan of platform games, I’m not very good at them. Thankfully this one is slow-paced, not too twitchy and yet, it’s not quite a puzzle platformer either. There is just enough action and thinking to keep an old-timer like myself interested for a few hours.
There is a little bit of a story which is told mostly through comic style art cut-scenes. There is also plenty of junk to collect if your the type of OCD gamer that goes for that sort of thing. Exploration is limited and it doesn’t take much effort to uncover secrets. Overall, and enjoyable game that doesn’t overstay its welcome.
A while back I gave this game a spin during a Steam free weekend and ended up setting it aside I guess because I couldn’t quite grok the stealth mechanics. On this second go around I’ve realized that it’s all about using your magic skills for just about every encounter. In fact, by the end of the game the player is well-nigh invincible will his arsenal of teleportation, mind control and time dilation. I’m too old to be wasting my time mastering a video game, so I welcome it when games feel like they get a little easier as I go along.
There’s enough of a thread of plot to keep it engaging to end. It’s all a pretty basic damsel in distress narrative with the usual litany of video game story-telling cliches. At least it is set in an interesting steam-punk world. Or more appropriately, whale oil punk.
I managed to finish the game only having to kill two characters, so I got the “good” ending. Hurray! I suppose.
The harrowing true life account of three airmen who are adrift in a rubber raft for thirty-four days following an emergency landing in the Pacific Ocean. It’s written a blunt, mid-century pulp style very much befitting a Reader’s Digest book of the month from back in the 1940s (which it was). Short and to the point. Spoiler alert: includes details of their bowel movements on the twelfth day. For a much better and detailed lost at sea tale I would highly recommend Steve Callahan’s Adrift.
This massive book has been sitting on my shelf taunting me for twenty-plus years. Ages ago it was recommended to me (by my art professor, Richard Long) as essential reading in the canon of conservative thought. It was only after having read some lesser (in page length) works about the Russian prison system—mainly, The Darkness at Noon and To Build a Castle—and having watched the excellent satirical T.V. series Comrade Detective, that I have mustered the energy to tackle this. Going into this endeavor I didn’t realize this copy was only two volumes of the seven books of The Gulag Archipelago and, quite frankly, I don’t think I will continue on to the rest. Doubtless this is an important work if history and literature. It is very thorough in its descriptions of the Gulag system… to a fault. Maybe, two dozen nearly identical depictions of an overcrowded cell are more than enough for one book? It is at its best when the narrative focuses on Solzhenitsyn’s personal accounts. However, there are multiple sections dedicated to a history of the various show trials from 1917 up to the 40s. The point being to show that the Gulags weren’t just Stalin’s doing. They had been a part of the Soviet experiment from the get go. Point taken. Lenin and Trotsky were both schmucks too. I think we are all well-aware of the horrors of communism by now (aren’t we?), and this account is just too much for me, as a mostly casual reader, to undertake. Still, worthwhile if you need further convincing that socialism is a dumb idea.
Games journalists (I can’t believe that’s really a thing) seem to love this game, I thought it was tiresome. Every game a new world is generated that you’re supposed to jump around looking for treasure, secrets and rare upgrades. If you die, that’s it. Permadeath. A game for shut-ins and the insane. So, why didn’t I like it? My problem is that I don’t find you basic platform-game mechanics all that interesting and, without a narrative hook, I lose interest fast. Believe me, I tried to like this one but no thanks. Sayonara, uninstalled-ed!
The ridiculous plot of this pulp trash novel is as follows: disgraced big city reporter winds up in small town; proves his investigative reporting skills in the local paper; is hired by rich media baron to do press for his corrupt political campaign… as a means of preventing him from covering the campaign or something (?); reporter actually planned this all along as a ruse to destroy ol’ richy-richy; um, S & M, lesbianism and the usual pulp sleaze; a stabbing and then all is well. Super realistic.
