Last Monday, on April 8th, I witnessed for the first time in my life, a total solar eclipse. I wanted to see a Total solar eclipse since I was a kid. Now, in my mid-late forties, I finally did it.
What can I say? it was beautiful. I was worried that the cloudy sky wouldn’t let us see it, but we could. I didn’t go to work that day. I worked but online which meant that I could see it with my mom as I intended. I took some pictures but not of the best quality. It was so cool when it got dark just like that. Too bad it lasted only a couple of minutes. But it was wonderful.
Going to work later in the afternoon was very surreal. I couldn’t still believe what I saw. I hope I can see another one someday soon.
In other more shallow stuff, I watched a couple of movies. The first was The Color Purple movie from 2023. I like the 1980s version a lot. This one is touted as an adaptation of the Broadway musical. But I thought that, for being a musical, it had VERY few musical numbers. I gotta say that, for a musical, it was kinda boring. The rest of the movie felt more like a modern remake of the 80s movie. Yes, I know the movie is an adaptation of the novel. But there were some moments where it felt like the Spielberg movie but with other angles and order. It was fine. But I stick with the Spielberg version. It was much more beautiful, subtle and emotional. For example: the last scene when cellie and nettie reunite is heartbreaking and beautfil in the spielberg version. In the new one is just…there. Too fast and very plain. You just can’t beat the classics.
The other was The Pharaoh, the Salvage and the Princess. I like Michel ocelot movies and I just found out that there was a new movie from him IN 2022! What the hell?! How I found out until now?! I had to search all over the interwebz until I could finally get it. I loved that movie. The animation can be a bit weird for people used to the big-eyed dolls of american animation and the pace can be boring without the fast pace and childish humor of dreamworks or Illumination. He uses three styles of aimation: 2D, sillouetes and CGI to tell three fairy tales about love destiny. I highly recommend it.
*sighs* Well time to go to bed and be ready for another work week. I can’t wait for my vacations in..*shuffles calendar* December? Oh dammit.
I don’t why I always feel the blues when vacations or weekends are over. I should be used by now. Or more exactly, I shouldn’t give it so much importance.
It seems that the older I get, the more dreadful I feel about Mondays. I know I am not the only one. But when I was younger I was like “eh whatever”…right now, I don’t even want to go to bed. Just knowing that I’ll wake up at 5 AM makes my stomach curls.
I say to myself “don’t be ridiculous, your job is not that bad, you had worst ones. And is good to have a routine and go back to it.” Anyways..
I still have the afternoons free this week, but I have some delayed work that I refused to do this week so I’ll be busy in the afternoons. I wanted to completely rest and do absolutely nothing this week and I did. I woke up late, went to bed late, played videogames and watched movies all afternoon, and so on. I also have another free saturday which is cool.
And, in a week, we’ll have a Total solar eclipse 😀 I am so excited. I have always wanted to see a total eclipse since I was a kid. Too bad I’ll be working. I would love to see it with my mom. I told her to go with my cousin and watch it but she said she wants to be at home. In any case, we won’t miss it. It will be amazing.
Speaking of games, I played Super Mario RPG this whole week. It’s as good as I remember it on the SNES but much more easier. Now you can use you whole party: if one dies, you can pick another in the battle. Or you can change them anytime. That makes battles less complicated.
Movies, no new ones. We mostly saw some that we have seen already: Batman, The wind rises, Jesus christ superstar, that thing you do..oh yeah we saw “The black cauldron”. We have never seen that movie. It was…meh. Kinda boring and full of cliches.
4 more minutes and the break is over and I must go to bed. Tomorrow is going back to the old routine. Until then.
I have one week at the college and two weeks at the Language center. Hey, that’s fine! One week for waking up late and one more with free afternoons. What plans I have? None. Relaxing, playing videogames..the usual. I wanted to go and watch Dune Part 2 but for some reason there are very few showings, only at night and dubbed in spanish. Bleah. Oh well. I’ll wait for streaming.
These last weeks have been work and studying for my TKT certificate exam, which was today. I think I did well. I hope I get at least Band 3. Would be awesome to get Band 4 but that’s very unlikely. They said we’ll get the results in 4 weeks :c In the meantime to make the TOEFL exam. Both things are being asked at work.
I still had time to play some games. I started the first crash bandicoot game. I haven’t played it in a long time….and now I remember why!
It’s stupidly and annoyingly hard. I couldn’t past the dumb bridge part after. THREE DAYS! Fuck this shit. I instead decided to try Metroid Fusion, another game I haven’t played in years.
I am not a big fan of Sakamoto’s Metroid but despite their dumb ideas (the tired “enemy you can’t defeat and must flee” trope) and silly stories (pure anime melodrmer), I enjoyed it. It’s also very short. I beat in 5 hours. Good. I am tired of stupidly long games. It doesn’t beat the first two metroids, the Prime series and Super Metroid, but it’s very fun.
After thinking a lot, I decided to buy King of fighters XIII physically. It was a bit expensive but is an amazing game. I want it for my Switch collection.
Next game in the backlog is Super Mario RPG. I normally play Resident Evil 2 on spring break…but not this time. Maybe next year.
Like I mentioned before, I plan to play the six Final Fantasy games from the Pixel Remaster collection, one by one in that order.
The first FF is a bare bones RPG with a kinda generic story with a very cool and balanced gameplay and a nice pace. You select your heroes and then level up with fights and better equipment. The game is not very clear about where to go. More than once I had to use a guide because I was lost. But is not that really big and it only took me 10 hours. I like that. I’m tired of games being bloated just for the sake of making it longer. It’s a fun, basic RPG with some really hard battles that made you think strategically.
FF2 is the first one to have a full fledged story and characters. Unlike the first one, here you level your magic and spells by using them, your weapons and shields by using them, your HP by getting hit <_< and anybody can learn any spells, unlike FF1 when only some mages and wizards could. The maze-like dungeons were tedious (thank god for the no-battle option) but I really enjoyed the game. And the music was awesome!
I don’t like the partner showcaseses because it reminds me that, no matter how good a Nintendo console is doing, no matter if it sells better than the other machines, no matter how big the installer base it is, we Nintendo owners will always be treated like second hand customers, only getting the scraps and the low budget shit. Even the defunct Xboxes are better treated than us.
Anyway..let’s see what they have.
Grounded and Pentiment. So it seems that MS will focus more on making games for others than their own shit. Meh. That’s a company that shouldn’t exist anyway. Of course, we are having silly games and not the big guns. Not interested.
some rpgs, some puzzles, more rpgs…
I have heard about this game a lot lately. Looks…fine. Not a big fan of tactics games.
Another Monster hunter…a stories one. Not interested.
Epic Mickey remastered! I remember renting this one for the Wii loong time ago!….I thought it was meh. Not interested.
Star wars, South park, shin megami tensei…*sighs*
Gundam , SAO, Monkey ball…*grunts*
World of goo 2? Wow I haven’t heard of that game in more than 10 years. Cool, I guess.
Fantasy life, the overrated watermelon game, a crab game, penny’s something, pepper grinder…
Pocket card jockey?? why??
a moomin game without moomins, an african boring game, a demon slayer game…*rolls eyes*
ooh Kingdom Come Deliverance. I remember the “controversy” the game created because there weren’t POCs in freaking medieval europe. That aside, the game looks fun.
Ah that Contra game with smartphone graphics. I’ll download the demo and check it out.
Endless ocean. Another old wii game that never cared. whatever.
Some classic Rare games coming to Nintendo Switch Online. Cool! Classic games are always welcome.
And that was it.
Damn, nothing shown there interests me in the least. As always, we Nintendo gamers cannot have cool big budget games. Oh no no. Have the smartphone games. Have the license games. Have the weird indie DIVERSE!! crap. Kingdom come deliverance looks fine though but I am not excited. I can’t believe that the only thing that excited me were the goddamn NSO classic games.
Ok that’s just me. I am pretty sure others are excited with most of these games. More power to them I say.
But I wonder, why no Nintendo games? Why didn’t Nintendo made a direct with their coming soon stuff? it’s weird. I doubt they will wait until June. Their fiscal year ends in March so that could be a reason…but that’s every year.Why not this year? I doubt they don’t have anything in the works. There are also some previously announced games form them with no news so far (like Paper mario and the thousand door).
Some say that Nintendo will announce the Switch successor these next months. Yeah, you know. That goddamn successor they have been saying since freaking 2018. But could be, who knows. I really hope not. I think Switch still has a lot of life and we don’t need a Switch 2 or whatever it will be called now.
“Hey bob! You haven’t talked about the oscars nominees!”
Seriously, who cares? Oscars have become such a shit show in the last decade that any enjoyment it had has gone out of the window by now. Too political, too woke, too silly.
Oh and this is the year when they will enforce those horrendous Marxists D.I.E rules in the nominations. woohoo.
Yup
The only cool thing is that I can know about some movies I missed. But most of them are not available to watch yet.
Let’s take a look at some nominees
Great movie. I wish I watched it on theaters. It has everything you want in a nice Hollywood movie with great dialogues, scenes and performances. I hope it wins.
Scorsese always gets nominated. Even if he NEVER won. Ok, it won with Infer..I mean, The Departed. But since then, nada. I haven’t watched it yet. I will but….3 hours?! gettouta here.
I liked this one but it was waaay too focused on the wife than the guy the movie is supposed to be about. Still very good. I doubt it will win.
This was a pleasant surprise. Funny, sweet, well acted, well directed. I doubt it will win but it truly deserves it.
Miyazaki is a master and he deserves every award. Not that he cares. And good for him. This is Miyazaki’s most personal and insightful movie so far and is a masterpice of animation.
But you know? If this one wins, I would be ok with it. Loved this sweet and funny dialogue-less movie about a dog and robot’s friendship. But we know it won’t -_-
And there are others I’ll catch up when they are available.
So coming next March 10th, my mom and I will cook hamburgers and cringe with the hosts and winners like every year.
A month of vacations was fine. Christmas was in the middle which is pretty cool. I could rest and charge batteries. I didn’t play some games but nothing new. I also could get up to date with some movies I missed. And I even made some drawings. That was awesome.
But that’s over now. Time to go back to work.
Well…actually…I returned to work yesterday. Yup, Saturday classes started last Saturday and this course will end on May. 5 months. Yikes. I know that by the end of April, the students will be fed up and want to finish. It lingers more because we have two weeks of spring break. So yeah, they shouldn’t complain 😛
Tomorrow I’ll go back to the University and I’ll start with *ugh* High-school. I don’t mind the Graduate school ones but High school is just annoying. I really dislike working with them. But I need the job and money. So, yup! Time to getting up at 5 AM to leave the house at 6 and LUCKILY arriving at 7 IF the goddarn buses don’t fail. At least, I’ll finish at 9 am and will have the rest of the morning free. That’s a plus. Although I would rather work on those hours to have more money.
In the afternoons, I will keep teaching in the afternoon at the Language School. I don’t mind it. Of course, I arrive at home at 7 PM. And like every goddamn year, we won’t get paid until March. Just great -_- This time though, I am going to do some things when I get back from work.
First, I’ll go back to exercise. I stopped doing it because by 7 I am too tired and just want to wind down and relax. But my blood levels have been acting weird. I wake up with glucose as high as 140! That’s not good. I think is time to change my meds but I need to see a doctor for that and right now I don’t have the money. I will have by the end of the month. So in the meantime to be careful with what I eat and exercise. That’s a thing that I need to do even if I don’t want to.
The second, with the little money I had, I paid for the first module exam of the TKT certificate. It will be in mid march. So, I have to study. I need that certificate. And it’s high time I get it once and for all.
This will be a busy beginning of a year. I just hope things get better. Not that they are bad but an improvement would be nice.
This was an interesting year for gaming. There were some good games released and many AAA studios faced many hardships like firing lots of employers.
PS5 is finally catching up and Switch is going through its decline phase. That doesn’t mean the PS5 is amazing or Switch is bad. PS5 still lacks killer apps and Switch is entering its 7th year! That’s quite an achievement!
I didn’t buy many videogames this year. They are getting more and more expensive and very few caught my eye.
Metroid Prime Remaster was the first one I got. I was really hyped to see one of my favorite Metroid in beautiful HD. And…yup, that was it, Metroid Prime in 3D. Nothing more, nothing less. Oh it has many different control schemes…and that’s it. MP is a great game and it deserves to be updated for new gamers but I wish they did something new for it.
I decided to bite the bullet and buy the physical version of Final Fantasy I-VI collection. I’ll start with the first one this month. I am going to play them in order but without rushing it. I’ll start one and beat it normally. Beat it and then go with the next one but not right away. I want to enjoy these games, without feeling like a chore.
In April I got Resident Evil 4 Remake. The only PS4 game I got. It’s very good and liked the new changes. It won’t replace the orginial which I played god knows how many times but like the other remakes, it’s fun to play these old games with new bells and whistles.
The one I was expecting the most was, without a doubt, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. And it was…fine. It was very bloated though. Unlike Breath of the wild which I played for many months before beating it, I got fed up and decided to beat the game already. Took me like a month and a half. It has many great things but they exaggerated with the new features like building crap. I hated that.
The best surprise was definitely Super Mario Wonder. I was waiting for a new 2D Mario for years and I finally got it! I liked that game a lot. Not the best 2D Mario but a very great one.
Other game I wanted to buy, and planned to buy but couldn’t was Super Mario RPG remake. Yeah I heard that is the exact same game from the SNES only with a couple of small features and new graphics. That’s fine by me. I don’t have that game on my snes (only virtual console) and I want to have it physically.Maybe in a couple of months.
Final Fantay XVI couldn’t play it because…well I don”t have a PS5. And it will take some time (or a couple of Resident evil games) to consider getting one. So far, I don’t see a game that makes want one.
And E3 is officialy dead. What a sad ending for a once important event. But E3 was getting lame every year. COVID just accelerated its demise.
What about 2024?
The annoying internet doesn’t shut the hell up about the successor for the Switch. Why the hurry? Switch is doing fine and no need to have another one. With that said, I think this year we’ll have more info about it from Nintendo. But I don’t think they will release it this year. Maybe the next one.
I really, really hope that we can have Metroid Prime 4 already! Man I have been waiting for that game since they announced it 7 years ago!
Of the already confirmed games for this year, let’s see which ones catch my attention:
PRINCE OF PERSIA THE LOST CROWN. I am a huge fan of the Prince of persia games. Knowing that a new one is on the way is exciting. Is it good? They said that a demo will be released this month so I’ll check it out.
MARIO VS DONKEY KONG. Not the Donkey Kong game I want, but looks fun. We’ll see.
CONTRA OPERATION GALUGA. It’s Contra. But looks a bit cheap.
PAPER MARIO THE THOUSAND YEAR DOOR. I always wanted to try this game. Now I will have the chance soon!
And I guess those are the ones I am looking forward. Of course, there are always surprises and unexpected news. There’s always a Nintendo Direct in February. Will they finally announce a new Donkey Kong Country?? After Super Mario Wonder..anything is possible!
They had it coming for embracing the D.I.E bullshit instead of just doing their goddamn job. They are some on the webs saying that we shouldn’t celebrate movies failing because of the poor poor filmmakers.
Uh, no. Sorry, I disagree. Yes, it’s true that normally most bad movies have good ideas or intentions but bad execution. But this year was different. Because of the woke virus, bad movies weren’t just good intentions gone bad. This time Movie studios and Filmmakers went full throttle disrespecting audiences and beloved franchises and making mistake after mistake.
And yes, there were some movies that failed that didn’t deserve it but that’s a different topic.
Hollywood also had a very long and messy strike…correction, TWO strikes! From both actors and writers. That made huge changes on scheduled movies and who knows how much that affected them.
I have only gone to the movie theater 3 times. Mostly because there wasn’t anything that made me go but at the same time, I was saving some pennies. So, all these movies I watched them either on streaming or, ahem, “digital platforms”.
Yup
I’ll talk about the movies I have seen this year and my brief, unbiased and amateurish opinion about them. And then let’s see what 2024 has in store for us, the common folk:
Knock at the cabin
Another fine supernatural thriller from Shyamalan. And a proof that you can put gay characters without feeling forced or condescending.
Shazam! Fury of the gods
2023 was the year superhero movies died. Yeah, the genre is still there but is obvious that people are fed up with them. DC especially has it worst with all their movies failing in theaters. But that was expected. DC on film has been terribly mishandled. No wonder why WB decided to reset the whole thing.
About Shazam 2, is not a bad movie. It’s very fun, the story is nice and all. But nobody cared. And let’s be honest, nobody cared for a sequel to a movie that faired well thanks to the superhero craze.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
First movie I watched on theaters this year. I loved it. For somebody that loves Nintendo and grew up with its games, this was a wonderful love letter to the fans and the whole Mario Universe. And seeing Donkey Kong on the big screen was a dream come true uwu. Not the best animated movie ever but did a fine job. I don’t like the peaches song tho. It was funny but overstayed its welcome.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol .3
Speaking of comic book movies dying…Yikes! Marvel had it baaad! GotG was the only one that made a profit and was liked by audiences but the others (Ant man and Marvels) bombed Hiroshima-style. Good! That’s why they deserve for going full feminism. About Gotg 3? It was fun. And yeah that’s it.
Knights of the Zodiac
Jesus this movie was just plain mediocre. It’s called “Knights” but there are onlt two. And the story was very dumb.
Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse
I think Miles Morales is goddamn overrated. Let’s face it, people makes a big deal about him for being non-white. I admit the movies were very fun and the animation was awesome. But I rather watch the REAL spiderman, Peter Parker, than this D.I.E posterboy.
The Flash
The second movie I watched on theaters. I am not gonna lie, I really wanted to watch this movie. I don’t like Ezra Miller but it looked good on the trailers. And although I think it’s a fine movie, it had many, many, MANY things against it. Miller is the first one, but the messy story, no background for the character and the fact that it relied on nostalgia to attract audiences, it would have been a miracle if ot was a hit. But it wasn’t. And with that, DCEU died.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
I refused to watch this movie on theaters or in Disney+. I am not giving money to that Kennedy bitch. Fuck her. I pirated because I was curious about it and well, I love Indiana Jones. But I knew it was gonna be a disaster with KKKennedy and her D.I.E agenda all over the place. And although it had some good moments, it’s a sad farewell to one of the best characters in cinema. Fuck you Disney and fuck you Kennedy for doing this.
Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1
I wanted to watch this movie on theaters but I was poor at the time :c I have to wait and watch it digitally. I really loved this movie and it had some excellent scenes and story. Surprisingly, it underperfomed in the box office. This one baffles me. It has all the ingredients for a movie to be appreciated on the big screen, but people prefered to watch..Barbie 😒
Oppenheimer
Another movie I wanted to watch on theaters but I couldn’t for some reason or another. I have to wait and watch it digitally. EXCELLENT movie. One of the best of the year and one of Nolan’s best. I may even buy the blu-ray some day soon.
Blue Beetle
I kept hearing that this movie was fun and harmless. Yeah, true. But it was also very very VERY DUMB. Jesus the mexican familia was like a circus parade of mexican cliches all over the place. They were suppose to be charming but ended up being annoying. You can see these filmmakers never visited mexico or met real mexicans and only read some wikipedia articles and went with it. It felt times time condescending and times stupid. The movie? Eh it was generic as hell. No wonder it bombed. And rightfully so.
A Haunting in Venice
Murder in the orient express was very good. Death in the Nile was annoyingly D.I.E all over the place. This one was very chilling and fun. The Poirot movies by Branagh are one of the very few good franchises right now.
The Killer
Slow, methodic and captivating. A very different kind of thriller from David Fincher.
Leo
First time I heard about this movie, i thought it was gonna be another movies full of fart jokes from Adam Sandler. But it was very sweet and charming. Who would ever thought. Yeah there a few samples of potty humor but not that much.
The Boy and the Heron
The third movie I watched on theaters. I had to watch Hayao Miyazaki’s latest movie on the big screen and I wasn’t disappointed. I wasn’t expecting a movie like that for sure! Very different from his other films who are aimed to entertain children, this is a much more personal one, full with symbolisms and visual metaphors. And a message that, to date, I am still trying to churn and comprehend. A great way to close the year, with a beautifully animated movie with a story that makes you think.
Missed ones
There are some movies I missed for some reason or another. Mostly lack of interest or no dineros.
Dungeon’s and Dragons. Maybe. We’ll see.
Sound of Freedom. Honestly, it seems overhyped. Maybe I am wrong. Being a small independent movie, I’ll wait to watch in streaming.
Killers of the Flower Moon. I’ve heard mixed opinions about it. Good but way too long. I have Apple TV+ so I’ll wait to watch it there when it arrives.
Napoleon. I’ve heard that this Napoleon biography was disappointing and took way too many creative licenses. I’ll wait to watch it on ATV+ too.
Barbie. This is probably the one that makes me furious. A feminist, misandrist piece of shit that everybody watched for the memes and the pink and made A FUCKING BILLION DOLLARS?! Are you fucking kidding me?! I have no interest on watching a movie that tells me that I, a man, should decontsruct myself because PATRIARCHY! or some other feminist bullshit. Fuck it!
2024
Looking at 2024…there aren’t many interesting things. Some movies could be good, who knows. Giving a quick look at the confirmed ones these are the movies I am interested to, but not necessarily want to watch:
Dune Part two. This definitely will see on theaters. I need to rewatch the first part before.
Madam Webb, Kraven and Venom 3. Sony will release three movies of the spiderverse..without spiderman. I gotta be honest, I don’t care about any of them. Maaaaybe Venom 3 but that’s a huge maybe.
Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. I though the last GB movie was nice but nothing else. I am not sure about this one. I’ll wait for the reactions.
Deadpool 3. The only movie from the MCU that will be released this year. I think I’ll wait to watch it on streaming.
Joker Folie a deux. The only movie from DC Films. Joker was a nice character drama. This one is a musical…..that can be eitehr amazing or stupid.
Beetlejuice 2. Really? a sequel to Beetlejuice? What happen with the “I don’t like to make sequels”, Mr. Burton? I mean, it can be good..but why?
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