Na consumes media
I don't like the idea of defining myself by the products I consume, but I want to share stuff that bring me joy, so here you go; stuff I've been reading and watching which has left a mark.
Hound 2024
I didn't expect much from the comic book publisher Mad Cave, but this story caught me by surprise. Written by Sam Freeman and Sam Romesburg and illustrated by Rodrigo Vázquez, Hound is a war story set during WWI exploring the ways war makes beasts of men. The plot is unexpected, and the rough artwork grew on me after a while (kind of like Moore's From Hell). I generally dislike war comics - this was an exception.
Delicious in Dungeon
This is an anime made by Studio Trigger based on the popular manga by Ryoko Kui. It concerns a group of D&D adventurers delving into a magical dungeon to rescue their friend. To move quickly they decide not to bring any food and to cook and eat the monsters they kill along the way.
This is a good story with humor and nice art, but it could have been shorter. The plot reaches a natural conclusion and then kind of drifts for a while until Ryoko contrives to keep it going. It's entertaining, I just think it would have been better if they resolved one plot line and continued with a sequel. A lot of manga series do this when they start to get popular. It's a curse of the genre.
Mickey and Donald Mickey's Craziest Adventures 2024
This is a Fantagraphics publication! Written by Lewis Trondheim and illustrated by Nicolas Keramidas, it's just a collection of one-page Mickey Mouse comics. I generally dislike saccharin Disney comics, but this collection was entertaining. Mainly I'm impressed that Fantagraphics would publish a Disney cartoon. Who approached who? How did they work out the licensing?
After looking into it, I discovered there are a bunch of Disney comics published by Fantagraphics. Apparently they started reprinting famous artists in 2011. This particular comic is contemporary, so I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe Disney doesn't realize they own Marvel?
Twin Peaks season 3
We decided to re-watch Twin Peaks. This is my second viewing and I like it better and better. Knowing how the third season ends makes it easier to stomach the meandering path Lynch takes to get there. The humor is surprising. I laugh at this series more than most comedies.
Twin Peaks isn't niche, but there are people who haven't seen it. I couldn't ask someone to spend fifty hours watching a television series, but if you're curious, I think it's worth it. My only reservation is with the latter half of season 2 where Lynch stops directing, and the people brought in to replace him don't understand his humor.
Also, I should mention, though it's not strictly necessary to watch all the episodes before season 3, it's recommended. Part of the enjoyment is watching the characters and actors mature and develop.
Here's an example; Bobby, the high-school prick from the first season is now a sheriff in Twin Peaks. Seeing his bafflement at the insanity and idiocy around him is hilarious.
Batman the Animated Series
The 1992 series by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini is considered a classic, but I avoided it for a long time because there was just too much. This was a mistake, it's great. The quality has declined from the first few episodes, and it's getting campy, but it's still great.
Because batman operates at night, the series was painted (and often airbrushed) on black cells which hurts my brain when I think about how the artists animated illuminated geometry. I captured a few frames from the video to illustrate the artwork, and I'm surprised and impressed by how clean the lines are.
Her Forbidden Knight 1998
This is a novel by Rex Stout of Nero Wolfe fame. I found it at the local library, read a few pages standing in the aisle, and then took it home. The origins of this book are mysterious. The copyright is 1998 but if you look into his bibliography it was his first published novel, serialized in 1913. Apparently this is the first time it's been pulled together into a book.
I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Even for his first novel, Stout has a strangely cozy writing style and puts together a reasonable plot. It's about a group of friends who hang out in a New York hotel lobby playing pool. Mistakenly dubbed the 'erring knights', they adopt the roles of Arthurian legend. The story revolves around their efforts to win the affection of the fair maiden working at the teletype booth. A product of 1913, there is some crazy slang and outdated modes of thought, but to Stout's credit, they are barely problematic.
This book is so old it's out of copyright and you can read it online, though I'd still suggest starting with the Nero Wolfe stories (The League of Frightened Men is a good starting point.). Incidentally, I did an image search to find the cover of the book I had. The image I found has the same white semi-circular mark in the upper left hand corner of the cover which tells me it's not a printing error as I assumed. I don't know what it is.
Earthborne Rangers
Earthborne Rangers is a cooperative card-based board game. You can see an enthusiastic review here.
Joe, our board gaming friend has been teasing us with this for a while. I think he delayed introducing the game because he wanted to buy more expansions, but he made a tactical mistake when he brought it over to show off. I convinced him to start the campaign.
I've only played three sessions so can't recommend it unconditionally except to say that we played and enjoyed two campaigns of the Arkham Horror card game. So far I'm enjoying it so much if Joe was unavailable I'd get my own copy and play it solo.
In Earthborne Rangers you play as a group of wandering rangers solving problems and helping people within a large open world map. The game is card based; you put cards down for the location, the terrain, the weather, and various obstacles like overgrown thickets or forest predators, and play cards to overcome these obstacles, either through force or understanding.
The cards are classified by a system of traits. A prowling Wolhund is a Being/Predator/Mammal and a Sitka Buck is a Being/Prey/Mammal. In this image you can see how the cards interact during play. If the wolhund is triggered it might draw in more predators or bite you if you're tired. When the Sitka Buck is triggered, they might be attacked by a predator, butt head with another Buck or attack you if there's a doe. The cards in your hand hook into these traits and the game unfolds as you interact with these puzzles and a story emerges from the interaction of these simple rules.
Stardeus
Stardeus is a worker management simulator ala Dwarf Fortress set in space. You start the game as a super intelligent computer in charge of a spacecraft that has just exploded. Using your robots and the people inadvertently woken from hypersleep, you rebuild the ship, research a large tech tree, and continue your mission to find a habitable planet to colonize.
The game is still in early access and there aren't many unique events, but the framework is solid, and I hope he continues to expand it.
Music
I usually collect music for a few months and then listen through them all at once, filtering out the uninteresting songs and adding the good ones to my collection. I'm currently in-between music batches, so I don't have much to share.
Taxi
Taxi (2015) is a weird pseudo-documentary where the director Jafar Panahi, after having been banned from making traditional movies by the Iranian government, poses as a taxi driver and records a film using dash cams about social challenges in Iran. It's interesting to get a driving tour of an alien country and Jafar has enough directing chops to keep things moving along and interesting.
Helix
I now use this text editor so much I have difficulty interacting with vim. Helix is fast, featureful, and a joy to use. I'll be happy when it gets a few more integrated tools, but don't let this deter you.
This image is what came up when I searched for 'helix editor'
Tam o'Shanter
Just go read this poem here.
Rust
Though this post has been about reading, gaming, and watching video, most of my time is being spent reading and writing rust. I've been rewriting my various home projects in the new language, using the opportunity to clarify functionality and fix bugs. The result have been surprisingly fast and easy to maintain.
The language is deep and somehow seems more transparent than other languages I've used. I'm still trying to default to approaching problems with types and traits. At the moment I'm overwhelmed with examples. I wish someone would pay me to work with this language. I despair of going back to c when I find a new job.
The infrequently updated blog.