The Favorites - My Top 7 Assassin's Creed Video Games

Since it is the end of the year, I felt like returning to the world of the Assassins. Ubisoft has released some more DLC and even free DLC at that. I don’t know if I’ll play any of it though. I got a couple of posts that I’ve wanted to get up for a while now.

First up is a post I thought would be a struggle. Of out of all of the AC games, which ones do I consider to be the my favorite? It’s a tough question because all of them have a lot of good things and few bad things. It ultimately comes down to a few factors like story, protagonists, gameplay, and just overall fun. Another thing that could make it tougher is the fact that there are 13 mainline games (including Liberation which I never played). It’s tough to make a top 10 of that, which is why I made the corporate decision to make this a Top 7 list. Here are my favorites from the franchise.

"It's a Video Game" - My Time with Mass Effect Legendary Edition: Part 2

The moment when you feel that you've played one of the best games ever.

Yes, it's Christmas Day, and I'm posting this. We got a little break in the day, so I thought I'd come on here and get these out. I actually did plan on doing this last night, but sleep swept upon me. That tends to happen when you're wrapping gifts and watching some Space:1999 while recovering from a crapton of food-eating.

Anyway, on to the point of this post. After my time with ME1, I jumped right into one of my favorite games: Mass Effect 2. Now this felt like home. If Mass Effect 1 made me fall for the series, Mass Effect 2 is what keeps me coming back. Yes, it lacks some of the customizable details like upgradable weapons and armor, but everything else is good. It takes what ME1 built upon and just expands on everything. The lore of this universe is expanded on. The combat is thankfully retooled and done well. The story is really good, and the most important aspect, the characters, are so well done. 

Unlike ME1's revamp, ME2 doesn't get the same unfortunately. Heck, the game was pretty much firing on all cylinders back in 2010, so nothing really needed to be done to it. Things do look a bit fresher, but that's it. I do wish it could've gotten a bit of a graphics upgrade, but this are fine as is. I didn't take too many pics this time though. I think I was having too much fun in the game. Still, here are some good ones.

Movie Talk - The Animatrix

Well, we got a couple of days until The Matrix Resurrections is released in theaters. Like most, I’ll be watching from home on HBO Max, but I know this would be a good theater experience. Now that I got that retrospective out of the way, I can finally talk about the Animatrix. This was an anthology film that was released in June 2003 at around the same time Reloaded was out. Man, WB was pushing it hard with this series since Enter The Matrix was released on the PS2 about a month earlier. I really never got around to watching the Animatrix until just recently. I think I ended up seeing a bit of it airing on TNT a few years ago though.

The Animatrix houses nine short films that are supposed to fill in the backstory of the franchise. The Wachowskis were producers and even wrote the scripts for some of the films. Each film was helmed by an anime director. This worked out pretty well since anime has influenced the Wachowskis’ work. I don’t know of them too well, but a lot of these guys worked on big things like Akira, Cowboy Bebop, Afro Samurai, and Aeon Flux. If you’re looking to compare this to anything, it would be Batman: Gotham Knight, a movie that uses the same format to tell stories about the Nolan version of Batman. A review of that is also here somewhere.

Random Thoughts On... Re-Evaulating the Matrix Trilogy

Since The Matrix is making a comeback to movie theaters, I’ve been a bit stoked. I’m actually looking more forward to this than the other movie coming out at around that time, Spider-Man: No Way Home. I think that just shows how uninterested I am in MCU’s Spider-Man. Heck, I haven’t even seen Far From Home yet. Maybe I’ll see it when Andy turns 5 or something…

Anyway, I had been revisiting the Matrix trilogy on HBO Max for a while now. While the first one still holds up well (well “Not like this” is a bit funny), the sequels are still okay at best. My son started crying when the Architect showed up, but that may have been because he was hungry. I think my term “Overblown Epicness” still applies for those last two movies. I had talked about the trilogy years ago on the blog. I was going to go ahead and talk about the Animatrix which I finally saw a couple of weeks ago, but I think it’s time for me to reevaluate what I think of the trilogy. Yeah, others have done it, so I might as well throw my two quarters in.

 

"It's a Video Game" - My Time with Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Part 1

Since I've been pretty busy doing just about everything, I haven't had much time to post here. One reason for that is because I've been knees deep in the Mass Effect universe... again. I've been pretty much on ME since Andy's been born since I've been going through all three games. My replay's gone down well overall. While kicking Collector and Reaper butt is cool, the one place I had to revisit was the first Mass Effect game since it was revamped just a bit. So, I'll just talk about it a bit and show off some pics I made with the new photo mode.

Jumping back in this first game was fun. It felt like coming home, but the home had been refurbished and looked more modern. Things in the game are pretty much the same story-wise. I did skip that one mission that was DLC (Project X57) because I mainly wanted to focus on the missions and characters. Things do change when we get to the character creation. Thankfully, someone knew I'd be playing "Black Shepard" again because I actually have a fresh haircut! I didn't play FemShep, but I heard that she's gotten the same upgrades with looks.

The graphics look beautiful. The graphics for the game initially were good for its time, but Bioware really put their work into making the first outing look good. The gameplay is much more refined. Gunplay is much better here than it was in the original. Another thing that got a giant overall was the Mako. Yes, it still handles poorly at times, but taht's the fun part of the Mako. Aiming on that thing has also been upgraded, and you can actually hit things! As for any negatives, I have none. I could nitpick about maybe something new story-wise being added, but what we got here is awesome. Check it out.

This is Halloween! - "Bela Legosi's Dead"

For this next post, I thought I’d continue down the rabbit hole of the vampire. Maybe that Batman/Dracula movie would’ve suited better here, but it is what is. When it comes to the big monsters, vampires aren’t exactly on my list of favorites… well, Blade is, but the Daywalker is one bad brother. Also, Angel’s a good vampire… when he isn’t sometimes transforming into Angelus. Unfortunately, I have no Dark Shadows episodes for today, but these definitely fit with that gothic feel… well, three of them do. So, here a couple of recent watches, one of the first movies I watched on HBO Max, and one of the worst things I’ve watched in years.

This is Halloween! - More Sci-fi Horror Goodness (?) and Batman

Well, it’s another week before Halloween, and I got a few more spooky themed things to share. While my first three pick are recent viewings, my last pick is something I saw sometime ago on HBO Max. So, let’s start out with another homage of Aliens and the Shining!

Pandorum

Pandorum was released to little fanfare in 2009. I vaguely remember seeing something about this movie around that time, but I never saw it. The movie is about how what was left of humanity took to the stars to find a new home. Since it’s a long trip, most of the crew spends their time in hypersleep. The movie starts when two officers come out of hypersleep to find the ship’s active crew missing. While Officer Payton (Dennis Quaid) stays behind on the bridge, Officer Bower (Ben Foster) searches the ship for the crew and any other signs of life. Bower finds a lot more than he expected since cannibalistic creatures have taken root. Unfortunately, that’s the least of his problems since there’s this little space disorder called Pandorum that can make most men go mad.

So, this is what happened to Faora in the Phantom Zone! Yeah, that's Faora there!

I didn’t know what to expect with this one. While the ratings say otherwise, a lotta folk like this movie, and I can see why. It’s pretty bare-bones with the plot, but a lot of things do work here. The atmosphere of this derelict ship is good. The interior is pretty creepy. The creatures, or “The Hunters” look pretty scary. You don’t learn too much about them at first, but you get the idea that something happened to some of the humans on board. The cast was fine for the most part. Ben Foster, Antje Traue, and Dennis Quaid do a good job here.

This is Halloween! - Something New

I don’t do too much for Halloween on the blog. Yeah, I had my looks at the Universal Monsters, but after that, nada. Instead of going with some theme of certain horror movies, I’m just gonna watch some random scary stuff for the rest of the month. Some of these are ones that I’ve already seen like my first pick for the spooky time. Others are ones that I’ve never watched before like Flatliners, aka “The Movie that made Folk Believe Schumacher Could Direct a Batman Movie.” I might as well get the mixture of Alien, The Shining, and Hellraiser out of the way first though.

Random Thoughts On... Brian Michael Bendis's Run on the Superman Books Part 2

So, where was I? Oh yeah, I was about to talk about villains and controversy.

A Bit Mixed on the Villains

We get some returning villains and new villains here, but I’m mostly focusing on the newer villains. First up, it’s Rogol Zaar who I already said my piece on. He’s okay, and unfortunately, we don’t learn too much about him here. He’s still on his hate boner for all Kryptonians. We don’t even find out how he possibly destroyed Krypton. Next, there’s Symnar Utopica, an alien from a part of the galaxy that has an orange sun. His deal was that his people turned him into a weapon to possible combat Superman. He instead turns on them and tries to kill Superman too. He was a bit on the “meh” side. We do get a villain named that shows up during the Doctor Fate two-parter, but that villain was so forgettable.

Yes, Zod! Beat the lameness out of Zaar!

Random Thoughts On... Brian Michael Bendis' Run on the Superman Books Part 1

I called it. I seriously called this one. When I heard that Brian Michael Bendis was coming over to DC, I wrote here that I hope they didn’t throw him on Superman first. Whelp, I think something screwed up with in the atmosphere or something because BMB came and did some Superman. Was it everything I was hoping? Dreading? Both? Meh? You’ll find out below.

For those not in the know, Brian Michael Bendis made his career with Marvel for a majority of the 2000’s. For whatever reason (I’ve heard various rumors), he left his exclusive job at Marvel and came over to DC. I think everyone was shocked by this especially me. I’m a BMB fan, but even I’ll admit that he has his low moments. Remember Civil War 2? While he was on the Superman books, he also helmed his own event (Event: Leviathan), revamped the Legion of Superheroes,  and handled a line of teen superhero comics (Young Justice, Naomi, and others). Anyway, his time on Superman came after what some would call a good period for the Man of Steel. His history was back, his marriage was back, and he had a heroic kid in tow. So, how does Bendis screw all that up? Well, he didn’t… sorta.

Here’s how it all panned out:

• Action Comics #1000 – a small side story that set up a new villain and the return of Superman’s other ally… his trunks.
• Man of Steel (not to be confused with Byrne nor Zach Snyder) – This set up the status quo with the Daily Planet and  with the new villain, Rogol Zaar, an alien who has a hatred for Kryptonians. We also have Lois and Jon Kent leave the book to hang out with Jor-El Debarge… yeah, I’m sticking with that name for this version. I talked about this mini last year.
• Superman #1-28 – With this book, Bendis pretty much goes cosmic on us. If you want Superman in space kicking butt and taking names, this was the book that had him on those adventures. First, we get “The Unity Saga.” Here, we get a Phantom Zone story that deals with Rogol Zaar and more recognizable Superman villains. Next, we get what is one of the first controversial moments with Superboy Jon Kent. The saga then concludes with the fate of evil Jor-El as well as some space shenanigans. After all that fun, we get The Truth (I touched on that here), more Mongul, a team up with Dr. Fate, and some more space fun.
• Action Comics #1001-1028 – As for Action Comics, it was more grounded and city-based. We get a lot of the Daily Planet here as well as a plot involving a gang called the Invisible Mafia. We get to see more of the new faces that were introduced in Man of Steel. While Clark is trying to figure out who the Invisible Mafia is, we also have Clark and Lois (who returns) go through some relationship woes. Add in a major tie-in to Event: Leviathan, and the return of Rose/Thorn. Next, we get a major fight involving the Legion of Doom, Leviathan, and Red Cloud (a new villain) in Metropolis, the meeting of the two Superboys (Conner Kent and Jon Kent), and John Romita Jr. unfortunately returning to Superman.
• Superman: Heroes and Superman: Villains – These two one-shots were basically the reactions of the different heroes and villains to Superman outing his double life.
• Superman: Leviathan Rising – This one-shot was basically another prologue to Event: Leviathan and other Superman-related titles. 

Graphic Novels! - It's A Bird...

While I’ve done away with themed months here, I still gotta talk about some Superman during September. It just feels right even when the man in question doesn’t show up. Today’s pick is just one example of that. During my last peruse at McKay’s, I was trying to find something to get. This book caught my eye. Outside of a couple of books, I haven’t read much Vertigo, so seeing something involving Superman in that line piqued my interest.

It’s A Bird… was released by DC under their Vertigo line in 2004. It was written by Steven T. Seagle, and it’s not the Marked for Death guy, okay? Let’s get that clear. Seagle had actually written for Superman in the past, and he’s done other things for DC and Vertigo. He’s also known for being one of the creators of Ben 10. The artwork was done by Teddy Kristiansen. He actually won an Eisner award for this book and a couple of others.

It’s A Bird…

Writer: Steven T. Seagle

Artist: Teddy Kristiansen

Letters: Todd Kline

"It's A Video Game!" - Assassin's Creed: Valhalla

Well, it took over 100 hours a in span of maybe two months, (Baby Andy takes a lot) but I more or less beat the main iteration of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla… yeah, I got one last mission, but that gotta wait. Just guess what’ll go in the “CONS” section. Anyway, this should do it for me in terms of mainline AC games. AC: Liberation is still out there, and can be played on PS4 now. Still, I think I’m petered out on the world of the Assassins for now.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was released toward the end of 2020. My initial interest for Valhalla was “whelmed” mainly because it was coming out at the same time Cyberpunk 2077 was being released. Shockingly, the Ubisoft game wasn’t the one that has been lambasted for being broken. I mean, I ran into a fair share of bugs, but something tells me that Cyberpunk 2077 could’ve killed my base PS4. I ended up buying Valhalla back in April for a bit of a discount.

TV Talk - Godzilla: Singular Point

When I heard that another Godzilla anime series was coming from Netflix, I gotta say that I was a little worried. I don’t know if you’ve read my review of the first Godzilla anime trilogy from Netflix, but I and others thought that series wasn’t good. Now, I did have some good things to say about it, but overall, it just didn’t do it for me. Now, we get to this new one. Godzilla: Singular Point was released over 13 episodes between April and June of 2021. It made it over Netflix after its airing in Japan. This time, Toho teamed up with two animation studios, Bones and Orange, to put this all together. It’s a blend of 2D and 3D anime. So, how does it fare out?

The series revolves around an engineer and a young scientist trying to avert the end of the world. Yun Arikawa and Mei Kamino separately investigate a mysterious signal. They and the world then get pulled into some craziness. It turns out that the signal is linked to the sudden appearance of dangerous creatures that emit a dangerous red dust. It also turns out that their appearance could spell doom for the whole world. Insert a crapton of Toho monsters including the G-Man himself, metaphysical and technical gobbly-gook, big monster action, and Jet Jaguar.

Random Thoughts #56 - "Well, Mary Elizabeth isn't the best name for a baby boy"

I finally got around to reading this story... it was fine. I'm beginning to realize that Johns may not have been the best with his time on Superman.

So, quite a bit has changed since I've gone into one of those Random Thoughts. It's June, it's getting warm, and I've put on a little bit of weight. It could be the fact that the pandemic did a number on me since the gyms were closed. It's tough to exercise with those masks. It could also be the fact that my fiancé's baby cravings have come to me. 

Hold up, did I say that right?

5 Pros/4 Cons - Neon Genesis Evangelion

While I’m not the biggest connoisseur of anime, I watch a little here and there. Which reminds me… I gotta get that one post on Digimon Tamers finished. Before I get back to that as well as other things, I thought I would talk about something that most fans would consider to be a gem in anime. Neon Genesis Evangelion was released in 1995. It ran for 26 episodes, had two movies (technically one since the other was a glorified clip show), had an accompanying manga series, and even got revamped in the late 2000’s. Imagine someone mixes in big monster action, psychologically scarred people, and religious iconography. You’d either get this or something Zack Snyder produced… I’m joking about that last one. Even Snyder wouldn’t be this overt!

Where's Film Brain when you need him?

My first exposure to Evangelion was actually through Bennett the Sage’s thrashing of the series and its finale, End of Evangelion. That may be why I never got into it since the stuff looked bonkers at that time. It wasn’t until Netflix released all of the original show re-dubbed that I got remotely interested in it. I also ended up checking out the first manga on Comixology, and that got me even more interested. I ended up going through all 26 episodes, Death and Rebirth, and End of Evangelion over the last few weeks.

"It's a Video Game!" - Control

Imagine you’re a redhead with telekinetic abilities who has to stop an evil entity from entering our world. No, I’m not talking about Jean Grey, nor am I talking about Liz whenever “Frankie, The Annoying Dog” wants to act like a cat. I’m talking about Jesse Faden, the protagonist of Control, a 2019 game developed by Remedy. This was a game I saw some press for back in 2019 since it looked pretty unique. Of course, I end up waiting until 2021 to check it out. Thanks, Playstation Plus! I knew there was another reason to keep it around. It was also released on the Xbox One, the Nintendo Switch, and PC.

The game is about Jesse Faden, a young woman who has telekinetic abilities. In the story, Jesse heads to the Federal Bureau of Control, a government branch that deals with paranormal or supernatural incidents. When she gets to their main headquarters (The Oldest House) in New York, she finds that the building is constantly shifting and morphing. It’s revealed that it is a doorway to another dimension and that something on the other side is causing it to morph. The entity, The Hiss, is also possessing the building’s agents. Jesse gets the shock of her life as she’s made the Director of the FBC, and she’s forced to deal with the coming threat. She also has to find out what the FBC did with her brother, Dylan.

Movie Talk - Zack Snyder's Justice League

Man, we got hit with some comic book goodness a while back. The revamped Justice League as well as “Captain Falcon and The Mark Hammill-Look-Alike” hit right around the same time. I even got around to finishing WandaVision, aka “Grief Personified into Sitcoms” too. It’s goodness all around when you include Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat! Yeah, I usually start these Snyder posts with a bit of a joke, but not this time. There’s not anything out in theatres for me to joke about, but I could probably make fun of something. Let me just get on with this one.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League was something I wasn’t clamoring for for a couple of reasons. I’ve got my fair share of Justice League-ness, and the fandom surrounding it is a lot. I didn’t say “toxic” because that gets thrown around a too much, and it’s not like any fandom has no toxicity in it. Some folk I do follow seem pretty chill. Heck, anti-Snyder fans are about as annoying as some pro-Snyder fans. Yes, I said it and I’m not even that big a fan of Snyder. Even though the original theater version wasn’t that satisfying, I still enjoyed it for what it was. Then, we heard what happened behind-the-scenes with the reshoots, and… eegh. That’s not even including what got cut out of Snyder’s original cut.

When the WB announced that it was coming, I was “whelmed, traught, and feeling the ‘aster…” whatever that means.  As more of the trailers came, I started to get a bit more excited. I ended up watching it all in bits and pieces the day it was released. I’ll save the pretty spoilerish bits for below, but I thought it was pretty good. The tone is pretty consistent throughout with some good bits of humor and pretty heartfelt moments. The League is all on top form here and even Stepphenwolf comes off better. It’s not perfect (a bit overlong in places and a couple of weird plot points), but this blew out the theatrical cut by a mile.

TV Talk - Roswell (the original WB series)

One pro of getting rid of themed months is that I can talk about anything I want to now. I usually threw anything sci-fi related into the month of May, and this would have been thrown in there. Just recently, Liz and I went through the entirety of the original Roswell show. I gotta make that distinction because there’s a reboot on the CW called Roswell: New Mexico, and I haven’t gotten to that one yet. I just had to revisit the original, ya know?

Roswell debuted in 1999 on the WB. It was helmed by Jason Katims, who’s also known for shows like Friday Night Lights and Parenthood. Johnathan Frakes was even an executive producer and directed a few episodes. It was loosely based on a YA book series called Roswell High, and the writers of that series even helped out here. It lasted for three seasons total and ended in 2002. The show ended up getting cancelled after the 2nd season, but it got revived for one last season on the UPN network. It basically went through what Buffy: The Vampire Slayer went through in its later years. At least Buffy got two extra seasons when compared to just one.

Movie Talk - Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins

After over a decade and a small webseries, we’re finally getting a new Mortal Kombat movie. This is one I’ve been curious about for some time now. I almost forgot it was being released until I started to see promos for it. The trailer for the movie looked pretty cool, but I am noticing the lack of Cage, man. Maybe this Cole Young character will liven things up, I’m not sure. One thing the new movie brought to mind was a previous “gem” from the past. It would be Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, an animated unofficial tie-in to the live-action movie that was also released in 1995. As YouTuber Phelous called it, “It’s the worst of 2D and 3D animation.”

I actually owned this thing back in the day. I talked my mom into getting it. She didn’t mind since I had already played some of the games at the time. You can thank my uncle for that. I vaguely remember seeing the video a few times. I also remember the trailer to the live action movie being included as well as a 20-minute behind-the-scenes look at the movie. Since then, I’ve seen the feature online as well as some hilarious reviews of it. I remember Phelous looked at it, and another reviewer from the old Channel Awesome days (Benzai?) reviewed it.

Favorites - 15 Favorite Black Characters in Sci-Fi

The science fiction genre has given us a crapton of characters to follow and root for. When it comes Black folk, it gets a little tough. You may see one or even two of us running around or being a side piece somewhere. Even when you see one of us playing a character, they’re sometimes playing an alien. Just guess why you won’t see someone like Guinan, Worf, and Tuvok from Star Trek or Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy. I could make a case for Teal’C from Stargate: SG-1 since he is technically human, but I’ll leave him off this one. It gives me a chance to look for other characters outside of these big sci-fi franchises.

So, here are my favorite black characters in the genre. One limitation I gave myself was that I wouldn’t include any superheroes on this list, so no Storm or John Stewart. I actually made a list similar to this years ago, and I wanted to look in other places where there are some cool characters. I might break that rule for a couple, but I’ll only go so far. As usual, it’s a bit of a random list, but I’ll put my favorites up top. You only can guess who’ll be first.

Movie Talk - Batman vs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

One movie I’ve been meaning to get to here is one you know I might like: Batman vs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You have one of my favorite superheroes mixed with one of my favorite hero teams. It’s a winning combination! Yet, I actually haven’t read the miniseries that was based on this movie. I'm behind on a lot of stuff, okay? I actually just started to read it on DC Infinite, so I can’t tell ya how accurate the movie is to the book. I do know that some licenses were taken (the turtles are apparently in the same universe as Batman is one example, but all you need to know is that a lotta fighting is happening.

The movie was released in 2019, and this was one rare occasion where I actually bought the movie outright. I had to see this. I even rewatched it last year with Liz, and she enjoyed it as well. The voice talents include some recognizable voices like John DiMaggio, Tom Kenny, Eric Bauza, and Troy Baker. One surprise is that Baker’s back as Batman… and the Joker. Talk about pulling double duty. Heck, the dude’s done both voices in other properties before, so I say go for it.

"It's a Video Game!" - Ghost of Tsushima

Since Cyberpunk 2077 ended up being a bust for the PS4, I almost shelled out some money for Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. While perusing PSN, I did come across a game that piqued my interest sometime last year. Some said that it was more like Assassin’s Creed than the current AC games are. Being pretty curious, and seeing that I could get this for 40 bucks, I decided to check out Ghost of Tsushima and test that claim out. It took three weeks to do it, but I think I’m ready to go over my findings.

Ghost of Tsushima was released exclusively for Sony in 2020 by Sucker Punch. Sucker Punch is known for also developing the Infamous series and the Sly Cooper series. I’ve played the first two Infamous games, but I haven’t finished Infamous: Second Son yet… need to get back that one. Anyway, the game was pretty much lauded by folk. I started to play this during my quarantine. Now that I’ve finished, what do I think?

Movie Talk - Batman: Ninja

If there’s one thing you can link to Batman, it can be martial arts. It seems like DC thinks that too since we’ve gotten quite a lot of stuff involving Batman going up against ninjas, monks, and everything in between. Heck, some throw Batman into the whole “World’s Greatest Fighter” title, and that’s just silly. He’s already the World’s Greatest Detective, and adding any more “Great” titles is just overcompensating. When the alien from another world is a bit more relatable than the human male who learned to do everything within a decade, you might be overdoing it. Anyway, why did I go down that tangent? I guess I wanted to hold off on talking about this movie. That’s not a good sign!

Batman: Ninja was released in 2018. Someone at DC had the interesting idea to let some anime creators get their hands on the Dark Knight again. This was done before with Batman: Gotham Nights from 2008. While that movie wasn’t the best of the bunch, seeing Batman (specifically the Nolan Batman) done in anime form was pretty cool. This time, Junpei Mizusaki was the director, Kamikaze Douga and YamatoWorks did the animation, and Takashi Okazaki (created Afro Samurai) designed the characters. When it got adapted for American audiences, Leo Chu and Eric Garcia rewrote the movie. It seems that folk are a bit split on this one. Heck, I didn’t even think about looking at this one till now since the animation wasn’t pulling me in. Still, was it worth it?

5 Pros/4 Cons - The Legend of Korra

Last night, I finally finished The Legend of Korra on Netflix. It took me a while to get through four seasons of it (season 2 was a drag, but I’ll touch on that below), but I finished this race. I never got to watch the show as it aired on Nickelodeon since we didn’t have cable at the time. Yeah, I could’ve found a way to watch it online, but I wasn’t really into getting a lot of streaming services at the time.

For those not in the know, The Legend of Korra was the sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender. I talked about Avatar here years ago, and my opinion on it hasn’t changed: it’s perfect. There aren’t many American animated series that I can say that about. Can I say the same about Korra? Well, this is 5 PROS/5 CONS, so that’s a no. I do think it was a pretty fun show, though. I know the show was kinda divisive with some fans of the franchise. Avatar: The Last Airbender is a perfect show, so trying to create that again would be tough.

Random Thoughts #56 - "2020, A Year in Infamy... For Now!"

Well, it has been quite a few interesting days. 2021’s already started, things are a bit topsy-turvy. Wasn’t this a Billy Joel song? Anyway, I’ve been trying to take it easy this time. While I might be done with Themed Months for now (I’ll touch on that below), some kick-A$$ery will be talked about for a while. Anyway, onto another edition of Random Thoughts.

2020 – Kinda glad that’s over?

Well, 2020 has ended, and we can all agree that it wasn’t that good of a year. Yes, some good things happened in the year, but it was plagued with… a plague. COVID screwed up a lot of stuff for folk. Lives were lost, folk have been laid off, and people have been idiots. There are also the protests to consider. Add all that happening in a pretty messed up election year, and you end up with a pretty “eh” year. Oh yeah, it feels like the election woes are still continuing into this year with “Sore Idiots R Us” trying to riot a few days ago in Washington DC.

While COVID has done a number on the world, things for me have been okay. My health has gone through some changes, and we lost one of our oldest relatives. A lot of stuff has happened, but I ultimately can’t complain. I still have a job which is a new position, I finally got some stuff fixed with my house (my parents’ house is another story…), I’ve started to do more at the church I go to, and me and Liz are back together. I won’t say too much yet, but things are definitely going to change in this year. I got some news right before I went into quarantine that put so much excitement and worry into me. I will touch on that here soon.

By the way, I did indeed get the bug around Christmas. I will say one thing: I’ll take it over the Stomach Bug of Thanksgiving 2013. That’s not to say that it’s something to play around with since I’ve done my best to be careful out there. Before I got tested, I went right into quarantine mode because I wasn’t sure what was up. It hit like the flu to me. I either got it at an eye appointment or the dentist, but I’m not sure. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one to get hit in my family since my mom and great aunt had it too. How they got it is a mystery since I barely had contact with them. Still, it looks like the holidays are the most vulnerable times to get sick. I’m doing much better (I’ve been downing Vitamins for a few months before this), and my mom and aunt are getting better.

The Blog

Jin Sakai is definitely ready for COVID-19.

I’ve been blogging less. Most of that has to do with being busy in other areas of life. I still want to write about stuff, so you’ll being see some come soon. It may be like the previous years’ posts where I just do 50 in a year, but that sounds right for me now. I think I’m also doing away with themed months too. That’s something that I’ve wondered about over the last couple of years, and I think it’s time to do it. It frees me up to talk about more during the year anyway, and if I want to have a theme for a bit, I can always do it again.

Plans for 2021

Yes, I have plans instead of resolutions for this year. I ain’t letting no pandemic stop that! Yeah, those plans may involve me dressed up in the Urban Costume of Sub-Zero, but you can’t stop me! ‘Murica!

Anyway, here they are:

• Be a better man – This is a continual thing. I want to do better as a son, boyfriend (and maybe more), worker, and anything else that enquires
• Lose weight – 2020 didn’t help in this fact. I think the last time I went to the YMCA was March. I’m around 231, which isn’t bad but not great. I’ll get down to 200 one day. I just need to lay off the fast food.
• Learn More – I didn’t get back to my coding for Python I tried to start last year, so I may take that back up again. Since I’m in a bit of a new field, I’ll also try to learn some more skills.
• Read more – One thing I didn’t get to do this year was read more. Too much other stuff got in the way, so this is one plan I need to stick to.
• Get Rid of Debt – This is an obvious one. I’ve gotten a couple stuff paid down last year, but it’s still going. With this new year, I know some will be coming because my Cruze just hit 250,000 miles a couple weeks ago. Goldie, you did me good.

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I think I’ll cut it off here for now. I gonna catch up with some old movies that I’ve been wanting to cover here on the blog. All I can say is “wax on, wax off.” I also need to finish off this game I’ve been playing for a bit. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and keep ya head in this new year. Remember to calm down, do a little self-reflection, and most of all, be careful. We got some idiots doing dumb stuff. Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t call someone an idiot, but there are worse things I can call them. Besides, if I see ya doing something STUPID, someone’s got to call it out and maybe make a joke about it.