Go to homepage

Reid Main
  1. Archives
  2. Tags
  3. About Me
  4. Email
  5. Resume

August 2024 Retrospective

I gotta admit that I am starting to lose interest in writing these retrospectives. I have a rough outline that I add to throughout the month but it is not until the last couple days that I force myself to edit it into something coherent and by then it feels more like a chore.

The current format of my retrospectives (where I focus on "the good", "the bad", and "honourable mentions") was started in October 2019 and hasn't changed since. So how about this, next month I'll just write about whatever I want. No explicit structure just whatever topic interests me or I think would interest others. I don't have to quantify them as "good" or "bad". I'll just give my opinion and hopefully feel more confident writing about it throughout the month.

But without further adieu let's just blast through August.

The Good

Bouldering

Three months after getting back into bouldering I have finally completed some V4 routes. My pinch strength and upper back muscles are definitely not where they used to be but I think I'm heading in the right direction. Hopefully if I keep pushing myself I'll be able to knock out some more V4s this month.

Rewatching Parks and Rec

This month I rewatched a large portion of Parks and Recreation and it remains one of those sitcoms that I will enjoy until the day I die. It is right up there with Seinfeld, Corner Gas, Community, Arrested Development, and Scrubs.

Spy Game

Spy Game is easily one of my top 20 favourite film and it has only gotten better with age. I love going back and watching thriller films before the Blackberry or iPhone was released. Bonus points if someone has to use a pay phone.

Kong: Skull Island

After watching PointlessHub's YouTube video on Kong: Skull Island I decided to rewatch it and was genuinely surprised at how well it held up. It is easily the most visually impressive film in the Monsterverse franchise and has a story that is head and shoulders above the rest. Admittedly that isn't saying much because the other films make absolutely no sense but Kong: Skull Island has the bare minimum story needed to push the plot along while also make you care about some of the characters. In the end I got to see Kong beat the shit out of a bunch of cool monsters, crush Samuel L. Jackson, and John C. Reilly got to drink a beer. 7/10

The Sunlit Man

This month I read The Sunlit Man, the fourth and final book from Brandon Sanderson's "Year of Sanderson" Kickstarter.

Unfortunately I cannot say much without spoiling it so let's just go with it is set in the Cosmere and you would definitely benefit reading it before Wind and Truth comes out in December.

However, I definitely wouldn't recommend this book to a first time Brandon Sanderson reader. I actually agree with Brandon's personal recommendation of reading the Mistborn trilogy or Tress of the Emerald Sea.

Honourable Mentions

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

With the upcoming release of Space Marine II I decided to make time to play the first Space Marine which was a horrible mistake. You do not need to play the first game before the second. The story is so thin that all you need to do is read a quick summary of the Space Marine named Titus and you're up to speed.

To be very clear this game is not bad, it's just old and not as good as what else came out around the same time. Space Marine was released in 2011 and is obviously trying to cash in on the popularity of games like Gears of War but does not understand what made those games fun.

The combat is generally unsatisfactory and sometimes even frustrating. Space Marines are hulking brutes who use guns so large they are basically grenade launchers. They also rush into melee combat with what are effectively chainsaws disguised as swords. Now obviously this sounds amazing and you may be thinking how can this be unsatisfactory? Well the problem is that your Space Marine will lose the majority of his shields and health the moment they rush into melee combat. But to get any health back you need to complete melee executions which are long, uninterruptible animations that allow you to keep taking damage. So rather than being this genetically engineered super soldier who rushes into combat and tears enemies apart, you're a meek man in armour who needs to stand back and plink enemies to death with their grenade launcher.

The levels and checkpoints are another sign of bad game design emblematic of this era. You waste time walking between combat arenas and if you die you then need to run back and do it again. It's little things like that which slowly chip away your patience and leave you asking why am I not enjoying this power fantasy game?

Thankfully, in the 13 years since Space Marine was released, Saber Interactive seems to have realized these shortcomings and Space Marine 2 looks really good.

Super Mario RPG

I'm about halfway through the Super Mario RPG remake for the Nintendo Switch and I don't think I can recommend it to anyone. While I understand how it was an amazing RPG for its time, the rough edges and blatant time wasting mechanics really stand out nowadays. There have been so many quality of life improvements made to these type of games over the last 20 years that almost any modern RPG is going to be more enjoyable. Not to mention cheaper since you don't have to pay the "Nintendo tax".

Vacuum sealing meat

I know I am late to this game but I highly recommend everyone look into vacuum sealing meat. I was able to portion $130 CAD of pork, chicken, and ground beef into 18 meals for two. We simply think about what we want to eat for dinner the night before, move the appropriate meat from the freezer to the fridge, and then shop for any produce or side dishes the next day. Not only is it saving us a lot of money, it has also expanded our dinner repertoire because we no longer need to plan what meat to buy and eat within 72 hours before going grocery shopping.

Airbrush spray booths

The basement renovations are close to commencing so I've started researching airbrush spray booths for my hobby room. My top two picks are the Pace PeaceKeeper and Paasche HSSB-30-16. I know there are cheaper options but I really like the steel facades and strong fans compared to the plastic alternatives I've found on Amazon.

The plan is to pair this with an inline duct fan to ensure that all of the toxic fumes are properly exhausted outside of the house. Hilariously the people most adept with this sort of thing are those who run grow ops which led me to the AC Infinity Cloudline Pro T6. Paired with a carbon filter I supposedly should have all the ventilation I need to ensure I don't give myself cancer while painting miniatures.

The Bad

Season 2 of House of the Dragon

Last month I complained about how up its own ass season 3 of The Bear was and unfortunately this month I experienced the exact same thing with season 2 of House of the Dragon.

This was an eight episode, nine hour slog that could have been cut down to three hours and nothing of value would've been lost. There are entire characters and plotlines that lead absolutely nowhere but take up multiple hours. The most egregious is Matt Smith's character, Daemon, who flies off in the first episode and basically mopes around a castle for the rest of the season. You could cut every single scene of his from episodes two through seven and it would not make a single difference to the overall arc of the season.

This was more or less an eight episode trailer for season three where supposedly there will be an actual war between dragons. It's funny how Game of Thrones ending was rushed because the writers and actors just didn't want to do it anymore. But House of the Dragon is going to drag on until everyone loses interest.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

I made it 41 minutes into Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga before I turned it off. The dialogue was atrocious, the CGI was distracting, and the storytelling was all over the place. I didn't even see Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa because the start of the film only focuses on her as a child. What's worse is you could remove the child from 80% of the scenes and things would play out almost identically because that is how little she actually matters to the overall plot. These 41 minutes could have been cut down to a 5 minute montaging showing how / why Furiosa was kidnapped and then get right into the meat of the film.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga left such a bad taste in my mouth that I immediately rewatched the first 30 minutes of Mad Max: Fury Road and good lord does it still hold up. The practical effects in that film aged like a fine wine.

Review August Goals

September Goals

#MonthlyRetrospective