Reading:

The Dwelling Place of Light, Winston Churchill (1917), Not gonna lie I thought this was by THAT Winston Churchill, but it isn't. Love biblical references in a socialist novel. Christian socialists are out there, or at least were 100 years ago. Bumpus is a banger last name.

Playing:

Fallout: Sonora (Translated 2025), nobody will play this. Total conversion of Fallout 2 done by one Russian man and translated into English, set in Mexico. Genuinely amazing. The attention to detail of making new assets with the same color palette, style, and CAVALIER OBLIQUE angle, not isometric. Also rare example of humor that works when translated.

Watching:

None at the moment.

Listening:

Geese - Getting Killed

Silvana Estrada - Vendrán Suaves Lluvias

Palmyra - Jubilee and Restless

Read 2025:

The Faithful Executioner, Joel Harrington (2013), kinda baffling read? Like half of it is absolutely amazing historic analysis through the lens of a specific diary, but the other half is gut-wrenching, needlessly in-depth descriptions of centuries-old crimes. Glad I read it as I think there are some very good takeaways and historic lessons, but would not recommend to anyone else.

Dubliners, James Joyce (2014), great collection of stories, though almost all somber. The scene in "Clay" of people gathering around to hear songs in turn reminds me so much of my family gatherings as a child, and the entire character of Maria makes me want to cry. Rare mention of the Rosicrucians in an Irish text, surprising to me given how important I feel they were to the religious and artistic development of the region, though I am biased.

Played 2025:

Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999), kinda shit from ass? Not a fan. Feels slow and clunky when compared to the other source Half Life games, and surprisingly difficult with how many forced damage sections there are. Also, I don't wanna play as a member of the fascist paramilitary to be honest.

Chrono Trigger (1995), Great game, love how the medieval characters talk. Adding "are you in your cups" to my lexicon. The ending with Lavos genuinely has me wondering if there's any inspiration from the Ohmu from Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind? Also the ideal combo is Ayla, Frog, and Marle.

Half-Life: Blue Shift (2001) as such a Half-Life guy I kinda can't believe that it took me this long to play it. A beautiful, short and sweet FPS that gives you all of the weapons and mechanics of HL1 in a much more manageable time-frame. 3 hours is a perfect game to me. Also, playing a goldsrc game and then just driving away in a modern c.2000 SUV felt surreal.

Easy Delivery Co. (2025) this game nails psx graphics, it straddles the line of making assets heavily pixelated and fade in and out of different resolutions, but without the gross PS1 graphic smudging. Fun story, cute characters, engaging gameplay, perfect length for a game at this point in my life.

Lunacid (2023) so very beautiful, I wish there were more games occupying the weird, barely 3d dungeon-crawler rpg, Daggerfall and King's Field adjacent game space. I love my weird creepy caves full of spiders and rats and ghouls and I just want to say hello to them with big flashes of damaging light and a rotoscoped axe swing.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (2025) this game stole about 2 weeks from me in which I fell into a deep haze, began eating solely large hunks of bread, sausages, and fresh fruit, and needing to remember that I don't need to clean my armor before going to work in the morning. Maybe the most impressive and systems-comprehensive rpg I've ever played. Definitely so for the historic rpg genre. Also just visually stunning, and with enough scenes of posterity, self-suffering, and treating the dead of the war that I don't feel too bad enjoying the big slaughter-fest game

Cryptmaster (2024) I love rpgs with weird spellcasting mechanics that make no sense and are based on ancient magi! I need more of them! This game was also so funny and just the perfect length for me to stay interested and fulfilled the entire time. I want a big marble bust of Joro to place on my mantle.

Oblivion Remaster (2025) okay, so I didn't actually finish this, but I played through all of the Shivering Isles, Mages Guild, and Thieves Guild, so most of the good stuff. Virtuos did a spectacular job with the remaster. It is so refreshing to see a project like this done with such good cohesion in all of the visuals, even between level, character, and ui design elements. Very happy that more people will go back and try Oblivion because of this, but my ability to sink infinite time with the game is long passed.

Watched 2025:

Churches and Synagogues of St. Louis (1995), old STL tv special found on a VHS tape, interesting to me with the open discussion of different religions, their roles in the city since its founding, all with very little judgement. Even talks about Muslim St. Louisans, which feels progressive for the time. A lot of info about not just the buildings, but the movements they represented and the people who were dedicated to them. You can tell a lot about a person by where they worship, if anywhere.

Knives Out (2018), put off watching for some time as I don't really like the Wes Anderson, Yorgos Lanthimos, Taika Waititi Oeuvre. It's hard to describe, but something about the huge, star-studded cast, big over-decorated sets, really direct and absurd color symbolism, just turns my brain off before I even see a movie. It's a personal thing for me. That being said, Knives Out is amazing. Just wanted to say I called who the sender of the letter was the INSTANT it was mentioned. Felt proud about that one. Daniel Craig did a great job in this despite the accent, and Ana de Armas was fantastic. Would definitely watch again. Also, contains M. Emmett Walsh who I recognize almost exclusively as the old man from Christmas with the Kranks.

Sherlock Hound (1984), so much fun, very moomin, makes me feel light and fuzzy, I loved Watson in this. Nice, compact episodes, I love something cute and comforting at the end of a day.

Superman (2025) first time I've been smiling for nearly the entire length of a movie in a long time. So, so, SO happy to see a return to a superhero flick that both makes a strong statement and is just good, light fun. Seeing more of Superman's parents is always a treat, especially when they're shown as supportive as they are here. James Gunn knows how to ruffle some feathers while having a great time, and succeeded yet again.

True History of the Kelly Gang (2019) all the reviews I've seen for this focus on the historicity of it, or of the portrayal of certain real life individuals, but I think it works way better as a spiritual, psychedelic adventure through the depths of immense loss, displacement, and suffering

Enys Men (2022) god damn. What a movie. So weird, off-putting, and experimental. Very thoughtful, intentional incorporation of Celtic, especially Cornish, mythology, in a way that ties together with great themes of humanity's relationship with nature, isolation, and our own past.

Samurai Champloo (2005) watched dubbed, mainly because I wanted to hear Spike's VA. Brilliant animation, and very fun story lines, even if Fuu kept getting kidnapped in half of them lol. The ending was honestly fine, I can't really help that I felt far more attached to the short, single-episode plots than I did to the pasts of the characters, they just didn't grip me that much. Great show nonetheless.

Ben Hur (1959) extremely impressive cinematography, outfits, and set design. That's about where my compliments end. This film is rife with brownface, racial slurs, orientalist imagery, and literally ends with the one Jewish main character being miraculously saved by Jesus and devoting his life to Christ. So stupid on so many levels. Makes me kinda mad that all the work went into those incredible scenes on the galleys, on the chariots, and in the Ben Hur palace were all for a weird piece of Christian Nationalist propaganda.

Small Things Like These (2024) shame and fear is such an integral part of the Catholic experience, and being raised outside of but alongside the church, it has a weird spot in my soul. I was raised by a father who would in the same breath explain how he was beat and humiliated by the nuns that ran the school he went to as a child, and how he wished I had gone to a Catholic school. For a land so intertwined with the Church, especially after independence, Ireland sits in an uncomfortable spot where doing the right thing might mean going against that which is considered a major backbone of Ireland's unique culture. Deeply sad, uncomfortable movie that isn't afraid to shout its message from the mountains. I hugely respect Cillian Murphy working on a picture that was pretty much guaranteed to gain very little viewership, and send a message that might get him shamed in his home country. Very moving, touching film.

Sinners (2025) I really, really want people to realize that this is not just a silly Irish Vampire movie, and is in reality a beautiful, highly provocative examination of the relationship between struggling black communities and a white society that seeks to turn every bit of success and joy of others into a chance for them to take their money or make themselves feel included. I know it's a bold statement, but it's how I feel. It's quite the romp, and a very fun film I've seen 4 times now, and every time I can't help but tap my feet to the weird, unsettling, slightly-offkey (maybe my ears are just bad?) performance of Rocky Road to Dublin. Just a bit more complicated than the plain one-weird-twist horror flick I see it made out to be.

A Minecraft Movie (2025) hadn't successfully gotten all of my friends from high school together until this movie came out. That's the only good to come of it.

(Probably More I Can't Remember, Will Update)