Zero Lives: 2022/11/14

Birthday Edition

Nov 14, 2022

In my 38th winter, I have come to several realizations. The biggest, and most important is that I’m in a really good spot in life right now. For the first time since I can remember, I’m actually happy. I have a fantastic wife and son, a job I love, and a comfortable life. It feels like a subdued version of the manic highs I would occasionally go through. I want to hold on to this feeling as long as I can.

So, in line with that thinking, I’m motivated to get some other aspects of my life in order. When I began this experiment of writing as a career and working from home, I also put focus on improving myself as a person. This included learning another language, learning an instrument, and getting back in shape. Today marked the return of that.

My fingers hurt from working up and down the frets of my bass, my soft body is aching from rowing, and my mind is mush after trying to reacclimate to German. It’s like someone changed out my power supply from a 450w and upgraded me to a 1000w unit. I have energy and I want to do all the things. I know this is like a spark of inspiration and won’t last, so I need to build the determination, discipline, and motivation to keep it up.

So, yeah. Yesterday was a great day of eating apple pie, putting together Lego, and spending time with the two most important people to me.

What I’m Playing

Destiny 2 - The boy had the inclination to play, so we worked through the Parasite Exotic quest and had an absolute blast. He’s getting much better about navigating the world and keeping us on track. Now we need to dial in on his inventory management. I’m excited to play Season 19 and The Dawning with him. It made me realize how great Bungie is at putting together quests and how much it absolutely sucks that the bulk of seasonal content is drip fed and running the same core activities over and over again.

Gotham Knights - Despite it getting mixed reviews, I was super hyped up for this one and it didn’t disappoint. It combined my love of the Bat-family and the Court of Owls into an “open world” game with simple RPG mechanics. It looked pretty, the voice acting was good, and the story was fairly solid for a Batman outing. Maybe wait for the sale if you’re on the fence. Otherwise, if you’ve been itching for something in the Arkham or Spider-Man vein, this is it.

Resident Evil Village - The Shadows of Rose DLC was the perfect sendoff for this masterpiece of a game. While I’m sad that the Winters family is done, I’m excited to see what Capcom does with Resident Evil 9. But, if you want some more RE or simply want to finish the story, this is an easy recommendation.

God of War Ragnarok - One of the year’s most anticipated sequels is finally here and I’m on the fence about it. The core gameplay loop of enter room, kill bad guys, solve puzzle, proceed to next room is tiresome. The story has fallen heavily on the trope of everyone hiding information and secrets from one another that, if they shared, would quickly resolve a lot of issues. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a bad game, but it hasn’t sold me the way I was hoping it would.

World of Warcraft - With the Dragonlands expansion coming up, I’ve dipped my toe back in. There’s not much to do with my main character as he’s still caught up. I have been dinking around on my alts and it really makes me miss the job system from Final Fantasy XIV. Just the hassle of going through and unlocking everything again is a pain if someone wants to experience another class.

What I’m Watching

The Bad Guys - This was the recommendation of the boy for family movie night. Typical heist movie shenanigans, except they’re focused on traditionally bad animals like wolves, sharks, snakes, spiders, etc. Better than expected.

Chainsaw Man - Despite moving at a slower pace than the manga, it’s just as good. I was even able to wrangle the wife into watching it and now we have something to look forward to every week. Again, I highly recommend this to anyone that is looking for something different. It starts off fairly juvenile but really ramps up about halfway through.

Spy x Family - The adorable, perfect family of secret keepers continues to be a treat to watch. I fell off on keeping up with the manga as it simply wasn’t grabbing me any longer.

Unsolved Mysteries - Do you wanna watch hour-long episodes about missing children that are accompanied by the world’s creepiest intro music? Netflix has you covered with this resurrected series.