There are not many things as frustrating than watching a baseball game for 3+ hours only for the team you’re rooting for to give up 5 runs in the 9th and blow it. Ugh.
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom hands-on previews
Resisting the strong urge to read/watch all the hands on Zelda: TotK previews from yesterday. Game is just 2 weeks away and after the official Nintendo videos I was already plenty hyped, now it’s all just risking spoiling discovering things myself.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (by Theodora Goss) – ★★★★
Interesting premise and framing device support a pretty fun and intriguing story. The daughters/creations of classic literary characters (scientists and “monsters”) come together, become unlikely friends, and adventure and mystery solving ensue.
Not sure how much of the characters and their personalities come directly from their sources (I’m not super familiar with the source material), but they were all pretty interesting and meshed together well as a group. The way the characters interrupted the narrator and had side conversations was something I haven’t seen before and work really well for added color especially in audiobook format.
After checking reviews, I probably won’t keep going on with the series, but I enjoyed “Alchemist’s Daughter” a good bit and recommend it to anyone who finds the basic plot summary intriguing.
? View my Goodreads review
? Buy The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter on Amazon
Rachael Leigh Cook descending stairs in slow motion
Wife is watching a totally decent just released Netflix rom-com where Rachel Leigh Cook is falling in love in Vietnam and they went to a remote village and she just came down the stairs in a new dress and her hair pulled back and it was kinda great. I am a little bummed they didn’t needle drop a Vietnamese cover of “Kiss Me” though.
Update: Found a Vietnamese cover of “Kiss Me” on YouTube. Ha!
Review: Flight of the Navigator
Watching Flight of the Navigator with the kids, and in the first 10 minutes we see David and his brother ride unbuckled and wrestling in the back of a station wagon, find out he keeps a giant box of fireworks next to his bed, and then that his parents expect his 8 year old brother to walk home in the dark in the woods and across the train tracks.
The 80s man.
First time I’ve seen this since the 80s myself. All I could remember was thinking it was scary, which watching again with my own 7 year old makes me realize I must have been quite the weenie. She really enjoyed the early mystery and then the tiny cute alien, and unlike her dad didn’t find it one bit scary. It was fun watching it with her and I enjoyed the first 2/3rds, but when the alien ship turns into Pee Wee Herman it lost me a bit for a while before picking up again towards the end.
? View Letterboxd review
? Buy the Flight of the Navigator DVD on Amazon
With the ubiquity and ease of ride sharing services these days, I do not think it is physically possible for anyone to care so much about a person they’d drive 90 minutes at 4:30 in the morning for them.
(I discovered this fact after briefly misunderstanding my wife and thinking she had just asked me to do so. Love you dear!!)
The Pudding: Where in the USA is this?
Fun daily photo location game: https://pudding.cool/games/where/
Today’s location took me 5 guesses to get 176 miles a way (despite having a decent first guess), partially because I totally borked how far 800 miles is on a map. ??♂️
(via kottke.org)
Reading glasses
I just had to buy reading glasses at Target in order to be able to read my phone in case anyone was wondering how old I am over here. ??
(Apparently in order to make my new contacts prescription strong enough to see far, it is now making my near vision worse.)
Golden Axe – ★★½
I played so much of this (and Sunset Riders) at the arcade at Schlitterbahn and it was so fun with other people while wet and smelling like chlorine and 6th grade. Crazy all those times playing it and I probably never made it more than like 10 minutes/2 quarters in.
Played through this in one quick sitting via Switch Online and turns out playing it at home alone with save states doesn’t quite recreate that experience.
I don’t know if it’s the Genesis version or what but I never figured out exactly what the hit boxes of characters was and/or there’s just hardly any feedback from the game when you’re connecting and the bad guys in Arcade mode are just damage sponges. Either way, doesn’t hold up very well especially compared to the recent Game Boy games I caught up with but maybe I’ll rope my kids into trying it with me sometime and have more fun that way.
? View GameTrack review
? Buy a Nintendo Switch Online membership
My handwriting has atrophied even faster in last 3 years than it already was before WFH.
I mean come on. WTF could this possibly say? Lemon? ?