CRISPR.

In light of current events, it's easy to think we're slipping into an age of ignorance. I purpose we are actually in an age of mad science! Well not really, but lets just say Gattaca is eerily close to our own reality right now. The gist is someone found the genes of a virus inside of a germ, which is crazy. The theory was floated that this is a primitive defense mechanism inside the germ and if RNA was written with a specific spacer sequence they could literally rewrite the germ's genes.

This scales up. Way up. Like China has already undergone trials on human embryos and it wasn't a complete disaster. We possess the ability to rewrite genetics. We've had this for months and I'm just hearing about it now. Guys! we could feasibly create a strain of malaria free mosquitoes and... I just realized this is how every post-apocalypse story starts. Still, nothing ventured.

But it's not even my birthday...

Yay, libertarianism. yay.

Chance really likes Night in the Woods. So much so he gifted me a copy saying it had me written all over it. This guy. This guy gets me. I'm in love with the art style and in awe of the dialogue. It hides tremendously depressing details in light hearted, damn funny, small talk. I've seen some critics complain this game outstays it's welcome, but I don't know how that's possible. I want to frikkin' live there. In a lot of ways I already do.

The maladies of the rust belt have a ton in common old southern coal mining towns. I'm really impressed at how light this game is able to make the crushing depression bearing down on everyone stuck in Possum Springs. Also fun fact, a lot of working class background characters have blood shot eyes. They're high on Oxycontin. Bravo, night on the woods. Bravo.

...Neat!

Samurai Jack's coming back. To Adult Swim. Which I find odd for a couple reasons, the saddest of which is that kids 12 years later still aren't that into this show. I mean, of all the CN shows that desperately needed a second chance this was it. Now they have something to show for it:

All right! That's... pretty much the same show, except with a gun. But that gun still makes pew pew laser sounds so that's still pure Tartakovsky. A gritty reboot of Samurai Jack isn't Samurai Jack and I'm realived they arn't going in that direction. At least not too much. Looks like they're going for PG-13 light, which I think is the right choice. In a word, I'm glad this is still for kids. Cept' kids these days watch Game of Thrones and have seen Fury Road so... this can only improve the fight scenes.

Coloring in History

I just got done with a hell of a week. 8 days straight, 57 work hours over 2 jobs. Wanna know how I dealt with it? I cheated. I cheated at Civ 6. I got hammered and played perfect games and I know I should feel a little guilty. But I don't. It was awesome, though I concede I wasn't actually playing Civilization VI.

If I was, every turn would carry a tinge of regret over my decisions mixed with a shudder of fear over Montezuma's troop movements. I can see what you're doing Monty, cut that sh*t out! Civ is stressful it's actually something I love most about it. But sometimes I can't deal. Sometimes I just wanna color in the fog of war and I don't want anyone standing in my way.

I had an ex that loved adult coloring books and that's the closest analogy I can think of. A theater square here, a Chichen Itza there, and soon several calming gaming hours have passed. I can forget about the cloth napkin shortage, the broken freezer crisis, the Camry title card affair, and dead Russian ambassadors. I've turned one of the greatest strategy games ever made* into a zen garden. You know what the funniest thing about it is? Even with all the money, luxuries, oil, and iron in the world; Peter the Great still managed to pull from behind and out-culture my ass. Say what you want about Civ's AI, it's still capable of some pretty cunning sh*t.


*it's already better than Civ V and after an expansion or 2... I can't even imagine.

The Magicians is still good. Enough.

"So do you need me to be weirdly sexual or sexually weird? Both? At the same time? Got it."

The magicians continues to be a show that both surprises and confuses me. It's perfectly watchable, has a fun premise, solid main cast, and regularly upends it's status quo just as it gets boring. But my issues I with its first season persist. Penny's lack of a character arc or anything outside of "the asshole" mold is REALLY getting on my nerves. His one thing was that he was a super special teleporter and he can't even do that anymore.

On the plus side, episode 3 was literally a season finale, full stop. That was awesome. Though the special effects are still pretty rough and will not age well. At all. Elliot and Margo continue to stand out because the show is now fully aware Elliot's it's best character and Summer Bishil is it's best actor. The Magicians could become the Elliot and Margo Hour and I would be fine with it. Seriously, Bishil's gonna be a star.

A mark of a great show is one that replaces dead characters with better ones. M*A*S*H did it, Parks and Rec did it, and I hope the cast shake up is treated like a chance to improve. Because it desperately needs to improve. Their are mountains of  pointless talking scenes and droves of amateur secondary actors. I'm not demanding Game of Thrones attention to detail but they need a different casting directer. That faun-lady was PAINFUL. 

As my punishment...

That moon wants to eat you.

Chance said last week that since my memory of Dead Space 3 was rosier than his, I should have to play it right after 2 as my punishment. So far, I'm digging it. The opening act sets up a decent mystery and the performances are a little sharper. 2 did not age as well in my eyes. For all of 3's many irritating choices it gives the trilogy a worthy finale. At least story wise. Excluding the Ellie love triangle bullshit.  

We did it.

We finally live to see the day where elegant robots actually exist. Whichever way this technology goes be it a peaceful utopia or despotic nightmare; we will at least know we made badass robots. And it will feel worth it.

Legion Review: What Time is It?

The last 2 seasons of Fargo have given Breaking Bad a deadly serious run for their money. They were great self contained thrillers with deep characters, gorgeous cinematography, and a script so tight it might as well have been shrink wrapped.

Noah Hawley has new fish to fry. He's been given the reigns to the X-Men franchise and he has made something truly, deeply, weird. Schizophrenia isn't something to be taken lightly, that is something this show gets out of the way pretty early. David may be the most powerful X-Man in the world of comics, but here he's just another psychiatric patient. One thing I do admire is how this show doesn't shy away from how much David suffers. His breaks from reality into red tinged velvet hellscapes become almost painful to look at. I imagine they would be quite a bit more painful to live through.

Dan Stevens as David is a young Sam Rockwell. Contrasting his dangerous sociopath from The Guest to this it's not hard to see golden statues in his future. Then again, I'd have bet Rockwell would have at least one by now. At any rate, he nails the sweet spot of making David just relatable enough to be the protagonist, but you still understand why his fiancee left him. Up next is Rachel Keller as another possible insane mutant who can't be touched and with whom David shares an adorable platonic romance. I'll have to apologize to Aubrey Plaza, because as much as I loved her as April in Parks&Rec, I thought she was her only character. As Lenny she's an ADHD verbal racket ball who again; is just goofy enough to be funny, but you get why she's inside. IMDB only has her on for 3 episodes so I'm already going to miss her. That's how much fun she looks like she's having.

When Legion is at it's best it's a cocktail of The Prisoner and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest. When it's not it's... well, an X-Men show. The action finale was a huge let down. 5 minutes of stuntmen lining up politely to be blown away on wires. For a show that had been, I'll say it, visionary for the most part to become so predictable in the end really shook me. It's a good show and I'm gonna ride the season out regardless. But I'm not ready to love it. I need at least one great episode for that and I like my chances.

How do you feel?

Psychonauts Lives.

I think I'm too young for nostalgia, but I'm pretty sure what I felt when seeing Psychonauts 2 for the first time is what has been fueling the reboot craze for years. I squeaked. I squeaked like a squirrel on coke. I saw Psychonauts the way it looked in my head and not as an 11 year old adventure game. The swaying trees, the blowing leaves, and Raz's mosquito slapping idle animation all gave me a slight chill. It's real now. I've wanted Psychonauts 2 for a decade but I didn't believe it was all going to come together until this. This FIG business makes me uneasy, but if it gets us to Psychonuats 3... I don't really care how they pull it off.

Barring humanitarian crimes or something. Like a Team Bondi sitch'.

Calorie-fu

I'm an over eater, it's been that since middle school. The trick for me nowadays is eat the exact same amount of food I used to, but with a fraction of the calories. For instance, Kraft mac and cheese. A box of that junk fully prepared is about 1,300 calories. I've found a way to bring that down to around 800. I fill a skillet with a cup of water and two cups of skim milk. Cook on high for 5 minutes and simmer on medium for 6. I usually mix in some sauteed mushrooms or sweet peppers or sumthin' then. A dash of sriracha to thicken near the end and... yeah. Sriracha mac and cheese.

Positivity Playlist:

Adjusting to a new life can be tough. Adjusting to a new world order can be tougher, but I think I've got a grip on it thanks to my daily playlist. I'm not gonna lie, I've been binging on David Simon's work pretty hard. First, Generation Kill (...s'ok.) and then Treme. A lot of people came to Treme expecting something closer to the Wire and what they got was essentially a musical. It's no skin off my back because I frikkin' adore the music:

 How 'bout some Professor longhair?

What else puts me in a good mood.... hmmm.

Nation of laws biiiiiiiiiiiiitch!!!!!!