My December 2024 Media Diet
December is always filled with a trip back home to spend time with family and friends. It’s a great experience but is a whirlwind of travel and leaves me a bit worn out at the end. Between holiday parties I played some games (see below) and mapped out a plan for my next project.
I’m planning on changing out my Mac mini home server with a Proxmox-based linux server. It should be a bit more maintainable in the long run and will be a fun exercise and learning opportunity. I’ll probably post here about it as the project progresses.
I also switched from Google Workspace to Fastmail for my email provider. I’m liking the change so far, but at the moment Fastmail’s spam filtering leaves a little to be desired. Hopefully that improves as I train the filter over the coming months.
Here is what I watched, read, and played last month:
📖 Batman: The Long Halloween. I wanted more Batman after watching The Penguin, and The Long Halloween was perfect. The Penguin adapted story beats from The Long Halloween and its sequel, Dark Victory.
📺 Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. This one started off strong for me, but I’ve struggled to stay interested. I think maybe Star Wars just isn’t for me, and I’m just following the nerd herd on this one. I’ll probably continue to watch all the Star Wars things, but I almost always come out of them with middling feelings.
🍿 Robot Dreams. This dialogue-free feature-length animated film was an absolute delight. I loved seeing NYC, with many real-life brands and landmarks represented here. The ending was unexpected too! (👍)
🕹️ Super Mario RPG. I picked this up on my recent trip to Tokyo. Super Mario RPG was a great length with varied combat. I think it could have been slightly more difficult, but maybe I could have changed the difficulty setting? That might be on me. (👍)
📺 Secret Level. Love, Death & Robots and this show share a lot in common, as they should since it was created by the same team. Not every episode hit its mark, and there were some definite lowlights, but overall I enjoyed this. The Mega Man and Warhammer 40,000 episodes are particular favorites of mine.
🍿 The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. A new Lord of the Rings tale in anime. I’m not sure I could have asked for something more up my alley. I’m not sure this exactly landed though. I think I would have been more into an elven story. Nevertheless, more like this, please.
🕹️ Monument Valley III. Love this series of games. I played through it in a couple of sessions, and I’m glad more levels are coming out over the course of the next year. Netflix is kind of killing it with their mobile releases. (👍)
📺 The Terror. I’ve put off this series for a long time because I kept telling myself that I would read the book first. I loved Dan Simmons’ Hyperion, but The Terror was such a long book that I’ve always saved it for “next year.” Well, next year never came. As such, I’m not sure how close to the source material this show stuck to. It’s a tad slow, but there’s a grim and uneasy undertone throughout the show that I really dig. (👍)
📺 Creature Commandos. James Gunn’s first foray into the new DC universe, and I’m already kind of worried. I enjoyed the first episode, but I’ve quickly started watching it over the top of my laptop screen while I’m doing something else. Not a good sign.
🍿 Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants. I’ve seen this a few times, and each time it leaves me floored. The latest viewing was no exception. (👍)