Things I've Enjoyed Recently

Event

2025-01-12

Speedrunning is such a joy to watch as a spectator sport of sorts, and AGDQ 2025 was one of the best events they've put on in years. I always just catch select VODs on YouTube after the fact, and I still have plenty I want to watch still, but what I have seen has been great. Some personal highlights being great commentary and a classic run with The Wind Waker by Linkus7, seeing just a favorite game run with UFO 50 by GrayGooGlitch, burst_error, spooty & Python, super fun hosting and commentary as always on Fallout: New Vegas by tomatoangus, extremely impressive TAS routing on SM64 A-Button Challenge TAS Showcase by rcombs and a grippingly close lockout bingo match on Elden Ring by adef and CaptainDomo.

Movie

2025-01-09

I wasn't familiar with the stage musical beforehand, but this ended up being an extremely fun and enjoyable musical. Despite not being the biggest fan of the school setting for most of the runtime, the stomp-clap High School Musical goofy songs really worked for me and was a ton of fun. And once they got to the Emerald City, it started feeling a lot more "Oz"-y, which I enjoyed. Somehow Ariana Grande's physical comedy was such a highlight of the film too?!? And was it just me, but was it advertized nowhere that this is just a part 1 of 2? The pacing was good and I agree ending on Defying Gravity was a good choice, but I felt a bit bait-and-switched at the end.

Movie

2025-01-03

I have not sat down to watch any Wallace & Gromit movies beyond clips, but this was a really enjoyable time. Great simple comedy, amazingly expressive animation, and probably a bunch of British specific references that went over my head. I've been told that some of the other movies, specifically Were-Rabbit, outclass this one, so I'm looking forward to watching those!

Comic

2024-12-22

A rad as hell webcomic by Blank & Pvt.Pancakes that I stumbled upon here on neocities! It's about two endearing amnesiacs, one of which is a cyber ghost(?) stuck in the other's head, trying to figure out who and where they are. The art, character design, and writing are all top notch and I can't wait to learn more about the world! The main link goes to their homepage, but click here to just start reading!

Comic

2024-12-20

After 7 long years of wait, and people largely assuming it would never come out, the 7th and final TF2 comic has finally released. The chapter felt like a fantastic send off for the comic, the game, and the characters that we've fallen in love with over the years. TF2 is a game I hold very dearly, so having this last loose thread tied off really feels like a loving goodbye to the franchise.

Video

2024-12-20

Defunctland's latest documentary, this time chronicling the development of Disney's animatronics technology. There is an underlying subtext throughout the video that draws the inevitable comparison between the development of automatons in the past, the contemporary generative AI craze, and the ethical concerns with corporations puppeteering a visage of a real person for their own motives. The opening history in particular made me reflect on how before the last few years, I would watched something like that with awe at the development of the tech, but now I can't help but see it through a much more cynical lens, seeing both figurative and literal mechanical turks all the way down. (On the topic, I can't help but find the fact that Amazon calls their microtask service, which abstracts away vastly below minimum wage labor to a simple API call, Mechanical Turk extraordinarily grim.)

TV Show

2024-12-18

Jet Lag has safely cemented itself as my favorite reality TV show I've ever seen. It is the perfect blend of reality travel competition shows like The Amazing Race and YouTube personality driven, more casually paced content. In their numerous seasons, they've featured a wide variety of game modes, but the refinement of their "Hide and Seek" format in the latest (currently airing) season is my favorite yet!

Video

2024-12-16

Ever since this video appeared in my recommended about a week ago with zero context, I can't stop thinking about it. Both this video and Ljot's entire channel feels like pure distilled self-expression and carries an energy I want to bring with me into 2025. (Heads up there's a good bit of flashing lights)

TV Show

2024-11-25

The League of Legends industrial propaganda machine's greatest triumph, Arcane, recently finished its second and final season, and in my opinion has cemented itself as one of the greatest pieces of western animation ever produced. The show had me constantly gasping at how unbelievably gorgeous each and every shot is, with some of absolute best character animation, backgrounds, fight choreography and sound design that's come out of the industry. This is clearly the result of a team of creatives given the money, space, and most importantly, time to hone their craft to perfection. While the first season was nearly perfect, the second season got a bit too "big" in scope for my taste, both in themes and the actual plot. It lost the focus that made S1 so solid, moving away from the political class struggle that seemed so central to the show. As a symptom of the scope creep, S2 also felt too cramped for time, like either a plotline or two needed to be dropped or another episode added, to give what was there some room to breathe. Despite the minor gripes, the overall package puts me in disbelief that something so good can exist, and I'm eagerly awaiting to see if Fortiche can capture lightning in a bottle a second time with a new location in the LoL world.

Video

2024-11-22

Hank Green crystallizes what I feel is an extremely necessary larger perspective on the unique situation both America and the world at large has found itself in. Touching on the erosion of truth, trust, how populism rises, and what history can teach us about what we are facing, this video is a must watch.

Video

2024-10-25

My favorite documentarian's (who's style is inspired by Jon Bois!) latest series covering the mysterious case of the research lab who cried "energy!", and the dangers of science fueled by belief, a will for results, and a desire for having your name be first. Like all great "Broccumentaries", the series has a gripping pace, regularly putting you on the edge of your seat for what a researcher said at an electro-chemistry convention in the 90s. Last year's series on the absurd rise and catastrophic fall of Nortel is also an extremely good watch.

Story

2024-10-25

The latest horror work by Petscop creator Tony Domenico about an enigmatic screensaver, and the forums surrounding it. I wrote a longer blog post about it here!

Movie

2024-10-04

An animated adaption of Tatsuki Fujimoto's one-shot manga of the same name. I held off on reading the manga to watch the film in the theater, and I'm glad I did! The movie touches on why people make art, and the joy, pain, and emotion surrounding its pursuit. There's a lot to chew on here thematically, and I especially enjoyed seeing the director interview after the movie, where he talked about intentionally leaving artifacts of the animation process in the final work, giving the movie a human feel that the subject matter deserves. Also having read most of Fujimoto's previous work, seeing his linework brought to life on screen was pretty special.

Game

2024-09-18

The latest game from Spelunky dev Derek Yu, alongside a cast of esteemed game devs across the industry under the label Mossmouth. UFO 50 is a joyous compilation of 50 meticulously designed and precision engineered (full size) NES style games, polished to a mirror sheen. This thing is an advent calender of the most innovative and clever game design you'll ever experience, all wrapped in a lovingly crafted metafiction to tie it all together. Special shoutouts to Mortol, Party House, Mini & Max, Bushido Ball and Night Manor, those are some of my favorite games I've played in the last 5 years on their own!

Article

2024-09-16

Ed's writing is consistently able to put into definitive words and stats my own skepticism and fears about the tech industry's toxic, self destructive, purely hype driven, "infinite growth at all cost", "move fast and break things" business model. Obviously at time of writing (Nov 2024) there are much larger existential threats than AI and big tech, but this article was an extremely cathartic read, and will unfortunately still be broadly applicable to how most companies operate for many years.

Movie

2024-05-24

Produced with a shoestring budget, four beaver costumes from China and a passion for 1920's style slapstick comedy, Hundreds of Beavers has very quickly become my favorite comedy movie I've seen. Despite its vintage inspirations, the actual filmmaking is anything but, with extremely clever compositing and rough 2d assets used to great effect. The style of slapstick it employs doesn't just pull from The Three Stooges and Buster Keaton, but 21st century video games. The world map is an homage to Super Mario World, the shopkeeper's theme is a parody of Zelda shop music, and on-screen hud elements and inventories pop up left to right. But it never gets lost in its inspirations, creating a video game-y internal logic that is very much its own. Watching the main character exploit the established rules feels like watching a speedrunner put together all the tricks and glitches at their disposal to slide in a record time. And oh my GOD is seeing an empty mascot suit get flung around SO funny to me.

Game

2024-05-09

Animal Well? Uhhh yeah, this game does I think. A crunchy little metroidvania by Billy Basso and the first game published by VideoGameDunkey's Bigmode, this game runs in a similar vein to games like Fez and Tunic, where there is a surface level to the game, and tons of little meta secrets to be found on a second look. The main game is perfectly delightful, with clever puzzles, fun exploration, and AMAZING sound design. Despite being nothing too revolutionary, it was a fun experience nonetheless.

=== SPOILERS ===
As far as meta secrets go, I collected all of the eggs (consulting a guide for the last few), and got a couple of the secret rabbits. This proved more than enough for me, as anything beyond seems unreasonably difficult to figure out by yourself, and 99.9% of people will just see in a YouTube video after the fact. (Though getting jumpscared by my printer spitting out an origami rabbit it wanted me to fold was a highlight.)

TV Show

2023-??-??

An extremely visceral and lovingly animated depiction of nature on an alien planet, with three extremely gripping human stories wrapped up in it. This is one of the most personally impactful shows I've ever seen. Passed up by HBO Max, and now on Netflix, I dearly hope they get to make a season 2.

TV Show

2022-??-??

The best way I can describe this show is that it uses an at times convoluted sci-fi plot to tell a very human and down-to-earth story. I watched it purely on a whim since I found the cover art interesting, and uncovered a show that struck me in such a strong and particular way, I haven't re-watched it yet out of fear it won't live up to how much I liked it the first time. Later down the line, I would uncover the staff links between this show, and most of my other favorite anime, The Tatami Galaxy, Devilman Crybaby, Ping Pong The Animation and Kaiba just to name a few. Eventually I do want to re-watch this and write a longer blog post about it, since there's a lot to talk about within it.

Album

2022-??-??

Yes the soundtrack gets its own entry in the list! The soundtrack to this anime permanently 180'd my taste in music, and opened up an entire world of Folktronica and Shoegaze to me (check out Mid-Air Thief! I found his music through this OST!). The beach-y synths and mellow guitar licks have made this soundtrack a mainstay of my music collection, and has been on regular loop ever since I listened to it for the first time. I've developed more of a personal attachment to the soundtrack than the show!

Story

2020-??-??

I first discovered 17776 through Jacob Geller's video Cities Without People. What I found was a deeply touching humanist story about what it means to be human, the meaning of "play", time, boredom and a million other things that I struggle to put into words. Jon's writing wraps around me like a warm, equal parts terrifying and beautiful blanket, that just makes me want to cry. Weirdly, I mentally group together 17776 and the manga Land of the Lustrous (HnK), despite their polar opposite tones. Also check out the sequel 20020! While it does stand on its own, do note that the second half of 20020, 20021, has not come out in the 4 years since, and Jon may or may not ever come back to write it.