Zero Lives: 2022/12/19

Twas the week before Christmas

Dec 19, 2022

The countdown begins. The fat man is almost upon us. If you’re in DESPERATE need of a gift, maybe consider the short story I wrote just for the holidays several years ago. Otherwise, let’s get into it.

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse just might be my favorite animated film of all time and ranks highly in my overall list. So, to see the trailer for the sequel coming out in 2023 is *chef kiss*. Spider-Man 2099 filling in as the potential bad guy with all kinds of Spider-Men filling the background… It looks amazing.

I’ve found a new hobby that will decimate my wallet. For years I have thought that my shakey hands weren’t capable of building Gundam models. Turns out I was wrong and I am now consumed with purchasing them and building them. I nabbed three kits and put together two already. I’ve even gone so far as to set up a dedicated space in my basement for their assembly. There are three grades that are based on size and complexity: 1/144, 1/100, and 1/60. The ones I’ve built are 1/144, but I’m eyeing up a 1/60 kit for next week that should be one hell of a build.

What I’m Playing

Destiny 2 - It’s the season of Rasputin! The Dawning is here! There’s a new dungeon with an Exotic bow that I REALLY want! There are plenty of reasons for me to play D2 and ignore the rest of my library, which is precisely what has been happening. Oh, and did you know I started a Destiny podcast?

Remnant: From the Ashes - I saw the trailer for the sequel and was interested. Turns out a friend had played through the first one and liked it. So, I grabbed it and we’re working our way through it. It’s like Outriders and Dark Souls had a baby. The boss difficulty is scaled so awfully that I’m intent on breaking the game with mods despite my friend’s protests. If a developer releases a broken game, am I not allowed to break it further?

Gas Station Simulator - I want to play this more, but Destiny *shakes fist angrily*. I’ve dropped in once or twice in the past week, but something in my game broke where I’m not able to progress. The game works off a story model rather than a free upgrade system. So, part of that requires me to pump gas for X number of customers. Except there’s something that is keeping customers away from my pumps. Who knows?

What I’m Watching

Chainsaw Man - Seeing my wife’s reaction to the attack on all of the agents was akin to watching The Red Wedding with her. And then to see the follow-up when a certain character definitely does something they shouldn’t do was equally priceless. I’m thrilled that she’s into it as much as I am. The manga was amazing and now the anime has hit the transition point where it goes from being goofy to being more serious and making one wonder where it’s going.

Holiday Baking Championship - This and Halloween Baking Championship are two of my guilty pleasures. Though my girl, Jessica has been having a rough time the past few weeks, I still think she has what it takes to take the crown this year.

Alita: Battle Angel - I had always heard mixed reviews on this and definitely wanted to see it. It finally popped up on Hulu and I gave it a go. It was…something. Some parts were better than they should have been whereas other parts were a little cringy. You can definitely tell this is a product of the 90s as it thinks rollerblades are the absolute coolest.

Titans - I was initially excited and then immediately lost interest in season four once I realized that it was going to be the same as the first three seasons. I’m sure I’ll eventually get around to it, but it’s such an exhausting watch with all of the angst and tropes.

Harley Quinn - Titans is what then led me to diving back into Harley Quinn. I dropped off in season three because…I don’t really know. Maybe I forgot to track the weekly releases? Either way, I binged the last several episodes and remembered what a great show this is and why it’s mandatory for every DC fan to watch. Hopefully James Gunn can bring some of this show’s energy to the films like he did the second Suicide Squad film.

Wednesday - Only two episodes in and I’m still on the fence about it. There’s a lot of intrigue, but nothing is grabbing me yet. We’ll see. This is a watch for the wife and I as I would probably have dropped it by now.

Podcast

Holy shit! I have a podcast! Again! This was the special project I mentioned weeks ago. I finally got around to recording. I’m not happy with the audio quality, so we’ll be playing around with that. Still, I’m happy to be doing one again.

This will be all about Destiny 2 and aims to be a weekly recap of what’s going on in the game and community. Give it a spin on YouTube or Spotify (other hosts are still pending).