Blog Post: Books Read in 2021

Kindness. Bravery. Summer. Growth. Community.

Blog Post: New Year's Resolutions 2022

I usually start off by being a little reticent to make resolutions since I want to pay attention to my habits and decisions each day.  However, I'm finding maybe just by the nature of a break in December that this is the easiest time to breath and reset. 

I realized all my old year end pictures break after a while. So I made my own.

As I said in my reflections on last year's resolutions, I've been struggling a bit and and feel like some of my habits aren't leaving me the way I'd like to be.

So here's what I want to remember and think about during 2022:

1. Move - I've discovered that while I was never super fit, I've become profoundly weak this last year. So it's time to move again and get back to a place where I feel comfortable moving and being in my body.
2. Read more non-fiction - I'm really happy with how much I read in 2021 and I'd like to keep that up. The one place I struggled a bit was making the time to sit down with non-fiction and read intentionally. So in 2022, I want to prioritize that reading.
3. Do - I've been keeping a journal consistently since the beginning of the pandemic and one of the regular themes there is "Do".  Last year I had a resolution to "Do More" but this year my goal is just to "Do".
4. Learn more about food - in the last little bit I've been thinking a lot about how to find the best food, grow the best food, enjoy food more and cook better.

Blog Post: Games of 2021

It's the future and some how I'm still sitting here playing Nintendo games. I only played 4 games which were released this year, and three of them were by Nintendo. 2021 has been a bit of a weird year in terms of what I wanted to play, and I really haven't felt that compelled by most of the other games released in 2021.

Everything I played this year was "good," they're all solid games you might enjoy, but none of them have really impacted me that much.

The Good

New Pokémon Snap

I don't have a huge nostalgia for the original Pokémon Snap. I enjoyed the new one, it's certainly pretty. I *may* have not figured how how to play it to advance properly, so it felt a little flat to me. Overall, I did enjoy the safari model of travelling through environments and seeing "genuine" Pokémon interactions.

Mini Motorway

I liked Mini Metro, where you have to plan out routes for a metro system and try to keep up with demand as long as you can. Mini Motorways is a nice follow up, it's prettier and the way you eventually fail feels a lot more manageable. It really runs up against the part of me that loves city building and so after a little bit of playing I'm kinda frustrated that some idiot built their house right *there*.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury

I only touched the 3D World remake. It's still pretty good, but it really doesn't compare to Super Mario Odyssey. Bowser's Fury was good, it has a real lightness of movement and interesting level design. I also like the idea of Nintendo turning out light weight, smaller games more regularly, so if I could play a new Bowser's Fury sized game every year I'd be delighted. Otherwise Mario games are pretty good if you like Mario Games and Bowser's Fury is a good Mario Game. 

Mario Golf: Super Rush

I think I've said it a ton, but Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on the Gamecube is one of my favourite games. I spent a lot of time playing it dreaming of how awesome it would be if it was built out to be a fuller, flashier game. Super Rush is *not* the game I dreamed of,  but it is pretty good. It's a well built golf game with fun courses. If that sounds like your jam then you'll probably like it. It has a single player "RPG" mode which I found to be underwhelming and the online modes are okay.

I appreciate the DLC support they've given the game. The big drawback to the game is they introduced a their speed golf mechanic where you sprint after your ball to hit it again as fast as possible. Even when you're not playing that mode, it still dominates the design in a way that's not bad, but a little awkward.

Administrativa: Feedburner Feed Broken

 Just a quick note that Feedburner seems to have stopped working with the blog, so I've turned it off. Possibly "for now" or possibly "for ever". You will need to readjust your RSS reader (assuming you have such a device).

You can find the feed for all posts at the bottom of every page, or through this link.

Blog Post: Books Read in 2021

Anxiety. Whales. Joy.

Blog Post: Looking Back at 2021's New Year Resolutions

I'm not sure how to think about 2021. I started a new position as a Learning Technology Specialist and that's forced me to think about my identity as an academic and a creator. The pandemic has also gone on and on and while that's profoundly wearing, it has also offered me a lot to be thankful for. My life is good and getting better, but it's not the easiest time.

Naively, I wrote some resolutions last year and I have a tradition of checking in on them the following year, so I guess it's time to do that:

1. Relax - Uh... fuck. The entirety of the year didn't lead towards relaxing. I certainly struggled both with the pandemic and personally to really get to a place I felt good. I think I'm starting to build some resilience in my mind now, but it's been a journey to get here.
2. Go on More Adventures - Uh... double fuck. Truth be told I did choose not to adventure as much as I could have, but still this year was not conducive to seeing new things.
3. Read More - Ok, something positive! I read a lot more and I read more broadly (certainly a lot more mystery). After several years of trying to read more I finally feel like I've shifted the reading bar in my head.
4. Write More - I didn't do nearly as much of this as I wanted to, but I did write more than I have in the past. I think I've found a direction and a way I want to go forward with my rather eclectic creative work, so I'm happy. I'm also more focused on the blog than I have been in a long time and that's making me feel good. The future feels bright.
5. Do More - I certainly found my way towards getting things done by small steps. As I said, I've found a way forward, in just prioritizing what I want to have done. I think I can still do better here at finding ways to do things, but *generally* I'm happy.

I'll be honest, 2021 kicked me in the ass in a lot of ways. I feel disconnected from myself in the past and I find it a bit hard to keep a thread constant through my life for more than a few months. There are touch-points of happiness and I think, if nothing else coming out of the darkness I felt a few months ago, I'm much readier to take an active role in my life going forward.

The best light in what's been my 2020 view.

Blog Post: Books Read in 2021

Men. Together.

Blog: Games of November 2021

I don't think I've had a month before, where I haven't played five games. I was pretty busy this month, and my PC is borked, so I guess I got to be focused for November. I'm looking forward to playing a bit more over December. I'm just about finished Secret of Mana and I'm trying to decide what to play next. I've been thinking about playing Legend of Mana, but also Final Fantasy 9 and 12, and maybe Eastward, and the Skyward Sword remake. The Axe of the Blood God is also doing a pantheon/game club playthrough of Chrono Cross, which I was thinking of playing sometime soon as well. So I have no idea what I'm going to do next, but at least I have options.

My top five games (by play time) for November were:

1. Secret of Mana (Collection of Mana) - I think I've played Secret of Mana more than any other game. It's certainly one of the two games I first fell in love with as a kid (along with Illusion of Gaia). I played a bit when the Collection of Mana first came out, but decided when I finished Trials of Mana that it would be interesting to go back to where I started and play again. It's been fun, sometimes frusterating (I've tried to do a more-or-less low level run), and a little weird. There are several things I'd forgotten and a few I don't think I'd ever seen before.
   
   
   
   


2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Continuing to try to "git good". I had a fair bit of fun, although honestly playing ALTTP makes me want to play Illusion of Gaia more often than not. They have very similar game play and IoG is beautiful (and I love it). I started to do a second play through to keep building towards "gitting good" but trailed off as the month got busy.
   
   
   
   


3. Trials of Mana (Collection of Mana) - Playing the original after the remake has been interesting. I've tried and bounced off this game quite a few times in the past. I'm thinking I'll write a combined "things" post about both the original and the remake - and Secret of Mana as well. Overall, I'm glad I played it certainly has a lot of interesting elements. I'm not sure how I would have felt if I played it back when it was originally released, and it does have some flaws by modern game standards, but it's really pretty and fairly fun.
   
   
   
   


4. Super Mario Odyssey - I barely play this, but I finished the "main game" and started on the post game bit and the flow and joy in running around this game has been great.
   
   
   
   


Here's my total play time chart for November:






And here's a chart of how much I've played over the month: