T w e n t y S i d e d

This week I started a Skyblock world in Terraria.

I started it mostly out of curiosity, but I am enjoying the change of pace. There’re only two islands in the whole map, one is the spawn island, which is made of only plain dirt and cloud blocks, and the other has the shimmer. Most of the ways you get materials are from slimes. On the surface they drop grass seeds, acorns and more ore. In the underground they drop stone, dirt, web, granite, and marble. Mimics can spawn pre-hardmode and will drop gold chest loot. Finally, the Eye of Cthulhu will drop a demon altar, and the Eater of Worlds/Brain of Cthulhu will drop dungeon bricks so you can fight Skeletron.

How’s everyone else doing this week?

So on top of dealing with an emotional crisis for the last few weeks, work schedules had to significantly change this week. As someone who relies heavily on routine and task completion this has thrown me off significantly. The dogs just reminded me again that things are not going the way they’re supposed to, as they have interrupted me once again, resulting in two of the dogs going out for a quick romp. Normally everyone would be home right now, just finishing dinner and preparing for the upcoming week. This keeps shorting out my editing, and eventually I decided to just throw out what I was writing and start something new.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Finding the Topic Again”

Paige Francis He/him

Recently I started watching the Simpsons from Season 1 forward after I had the terrible realization that there were episodes from the “golden years” that I had never seen. I didn’t get into the Simpsons until my middle school years when it was syndicated and shown on TBS after school every day. It was my background show I watched when I did my homework. I got a couple of the box sets of DVDs back in the day but never actually got around to watching any except the very first episode back then.

Now, with the power of disgusting corporate conglomeration into a monopolistic monstrosity I can watch the whole series on Disney+. My goal is to catch all the way up. Thirty-seven seasons of wildly varying content. I want to see where things went wrong and where they start to pull back together, as I actually like some of the newer episodes I’ve seen here and there. So far I’m just up to Season 4 and I have to say, the term “flanderization” is off the mark.

Season 1 Ned Flanders was the All-American perfect neighbor with the beautiful house, yard, wife, and kids. He was everything Homer wanted to be, which is what made him so mad. Cut to Season 3 Ned Flanders. Same guy except now we know he’s religious and featured more frequently. That small change has been seen as so drastic and so wild as a shift that it birthed its own page on TV tropes and spawned many a video essay. But I think that reaction is unearned and misguided. With Flanders it really just feels like a natural evolution. We knew he was a goody-two-shoes, so it only makes sense that he would get his strict moral character from somewhere. Religion feels like a solid direction for it to have come from. The complaint people tend to have is that his character gets boiled down to nothing but a side character for religious jokes, but I don’t really see that at all. We regularly learn more about Ned and get spotlights showing more about his character over the seasons. There is an episode or two that feature Ned that have made me cry. He’s got depth.

If there’s any character that becomes flanderized, it’s Homer. Season 1 Homer is a bit shlubby and dopey, but you can see his love and appreciation for his family immediately. Season 3 Homer is a dangerous idiot. Season 3 Homer shouldn’t have a family because Season 3 Marge should have left and taken the kids away from him. I love watching him and his antics, but it’s an aggressive shift from a well-meaning teddy bear to selfish “jerkass” with no real reason or explanation other than the fact that The Simpsons is an animated sitcom.

I think that maybe people see the lowering quality of Simpsons writing and try to come up with explanations that are more complicated than reality. It really could be that writers found other jobs and people’s interest in the show fatigued. The product eventually got less appealing, but when does it really make that shift?

I’m going to find out. I’m committed. I know that at some point later on I’ll have to disassociate my way through the Simpsons writers’ room trying to be topical and edgy in a way that feels very “How do you do, fellow kids?” I will get through it. I am strong enough. If I need you to send help I’ll start writing in haikus.

I have started this
Journey whose end is far off
Mistake made? Likely

Ethan Rodgers

This week was just killing time with more Deep Rock Galactic.

But I did pick up Teardown again. I’ve always had a fondness for voxel based games. And, Teardown is just beautiful, the gameplay is simple, but I just love the feedback with the lights and sounds. Sometimes you just need to be given a sledgehammer and just be told ‘break that’. So aside from playing property damage: the game, I’ve just been busy with work.

How’s everyone else this week?

Issac Young Youngest child of Shamus Young. He/Him

Steve Shives posted a video the other day about how more recent Star Trek properties are more willing to show flaws and failures; imperfections in the characters and institutions featured in the stories. But also, prominently; how they almost always “take it back” in the end. “Fall short of committing.” “Pull the rug out.” Most especially regarding Starfleet, which is the ultimate authority and representative of *all* humans and allied species and cultures in most Star Trek media. Shives pointed out three examples from the Picard series, Strange New Worlds, and most recently the first series of Starfleet Academy. The Picard example can to an extent be laid next to the blender the whole idea was run through at some point, and Strange New Worlds; being very episodic in nature, I would be willing to not take overly seriously because what’s true in one episode isn’t necessarily true in the next. (I want to be clear, this is based on taking things at face value and REFUSING to look even slightly deeper…my opinion changes once that is done.) But the Starfleet Academy example is very clear and unapologetic, as that series IS built on an overarching narrative with specific actions and a named and repeatedly featured villain. But in the end, despite creating an obvious and understandable story arc, the writers choose essentially to have the protagonist of the backstory NOT LEARN anything, or change because of events even though that is repeatedly shown throughout the series, but defend their decisions which they have regretted for two decades with “hey, everybody makes mistakes. You have to understand the context, blah blah blah.” I mean, it’s a choice; but the story naturally supported a different conclusion. It was sitting right there. The whole series was based on the idea. And I’m not gonna tell you about it because spoilers.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Some Thoughts on Star Trek Lore”

Paige Francis He/him

Not long ago every game had an ill conceived, tacked on multiplayer mode that everyone ignored. Like, who the hell played the Last of Us’s multiplayer? I did. I was forced to if I wanted to get the platinum. But it was a needless waste of time and money for the devs for a middling game mode with a very short half life. The multiplayer modes never needed to be included. Nobody wanted them. Thankfully that has mostly gone away. A relative of the tacked on multiplayer mode has persisted however: the minigame.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Minigames And Their Modern Applications”

Ethan Rodgers

I haven’t done much this week. I’ve been too busy to play much Terraria, so instead I’m playing Deep Rock Galactic. Not much going on there, just playing solo and collecting stuff from this current season.

What’s everyone else doing this week?

Issac Young Youngest child of Shamus Young. He/Him