12/6/21: This things is still happening?
TLDR
Update: Just a bunch of stuff
Playing: No Man’s Sky
Reading: The Peace War by Vernor Vinge
Watching: See on AppleTV+
End Notes: You can contact me at jadettman@gmail.com
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THE UPDATE
What is even happening? Or happened since last time?
The end of the semester kicked my butt hard at the new job and, now that we’re coming up on finals, I’m hoping it’s going to settle down again.
I bought a PS5 for Britt, because she’s wanted one since they were announced, thinking that I wouldn’t be interested and was clearly wrong there. (Something something pandemic and new fun). Which means I should probably find her a new Solstice gift.
I still miss Joel but it hurts a little less. Though not when pictures of her show up in my FB memories. Bean and Bub seem to get along sometimes and fight (like cats) too often.
I’m sending out holiday cards this year; if you want one, you should make sure I have your address (email or text preferred).
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PLAYING
I got luck last month and won Sony’s PS5 lottery. I mean, I still had to buy the thing but, with the chip shortage, they’ve been hard to find. But that also means that Britt and I have been playing games on our PS5 lately and our main obsession is No Man’s Sky (aka grown-up space Minecraft).
In the early game, it’s all about figuring out how to survive and gathering the resources that will allow you to do so. Most planets have something environmental that is trying to kill you (toxic atmosphere, extreme heat/cold) and you need to mine things from the environment to keep your life-support tech working.
Once you get survival down, there is a storyline that you’re supposed to follow in which you try to figure out your past life (‘cause you’ve got amnesia, obvs) but, so far, I’m mostly not interested. I’ve spent most of my time exploring the solar system and building bases (with teleport rings) on the six local planets which lets me go where I want pretty quickly and allows me access to all the different resources I need.
Eventually, I’ll start wandering off to other solar systems and, probably, follow the storyline or I might get bored but it’s been a week and I’m not there yet.
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READING
Re-read The Peace War by Vernor Vinge during a library book lull, by which I mean I own it but it’s been a while since I read it last. I always forget how good Vinge is.
The premise of the book is that sometime in the late 80s or early 90 a scientist came up with a way to create “bobbles,” perfectly spherical force-fields and that a small group of scientists and academics kept it secret long enough to build a working generator and then used it to bottle up most of the militaries and governments of the world, immediately throwing things into chaos and then taking over.
It’s a little bonkers, and going in for a re-read, I figured that Vinge was another one of these SF authors hyper-focused on his tech and less interested in his people. So, finding out otherwise, yet again, is delightful.
As with most of these little book capsules, I don’t really want to spoil anything for potential readers. Suffice to say, it’s dated but still good.
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WATCHING
I have I talked about See on AppleTV+ before? I could go check but, instead, I will press on because it’s still interesting and well-made.
We’re nearing the end of the first season, at this point. Oh, this is a post-apocalyptic show starring Jason Momoa in which something happened in the distant past and now everyone is blind. Except, spoiler for the first episode, some children who are born with sight.
When I originally hear this premise, I thought it was pretty dumb and, honestly, I didn’t need another post-apocalyptic show. But, I heard from various sources that the show was, you know, actually good. So, with some skepticism, we gave it a go.
Friends, this show is great. The world building is amazing, the scenery is amazing, and most of the characters are well-acted and interesting. Almost everyone in this show is smart! Do you know how rare that is?
So, let’s just say, I’m really enjoying this show and would love to be able to talk about it with others.
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END NOTES
If you'd like to send me some feedback or discuss one of the topics I've talked about here (or even a different topic), email me at jadettman@gmail.com
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