February 9th - February 15th 2026

TV

• Fallout | Season 2 - I adore this show. Season one somehow captured the awkward, one-dimensional nature of most characters/archetypes, which was perfect! To me, the magic of Fallout is sitting in the apocalyptic humor of shock and awe, and the truly strange and committed characters you meet. This may also be the most convincing adaptation of emergent questing in the T.V. medium. The characters unique personalities lead them to believable quest-like situations and, most importantly, believable quest progression. An excellent, excellent show and season 2 is more and, imo, better!

Movies

• Return to Silent Hill | 2026 - The way I have been waiting to watch this fucking movie. First, I wasn’t expecting a good movie and I don’t think anyone else was. However, there is something in the Silent Hill franchise that feels more quality-protected than say Resident Evil. This might be because of the cult following and critical acclaim of the first two games, and I’ve never played one of the games so I’m operating on all internet vibes. I expected a lackluster, lore agnostic, but atmospheric and light fanservice operation. And, that’s mostly right, but the “buts” are so egregious they actually surprised me - a lover of shitty video game movie adaptations. For a non-Silent Hill player, I walked away thinking the first 90% was a 5 or 6/10 shitty video game movie that had cool visuals in a cool place with all the monsters I was hoping to see. And then, the ending. The ending was so inconceivable, unnecessary, and male manipulator that it ruined the movie for me. I wouldn’t have completely regretted seeing the movie if I didn’t go with someone else to commiserate after the fact. I went to the movie with someone who has played and replayed Silent Hill games. She knows each game and has spent a lot of time digging into the lore and symbolism, and it was painful hearing her thoughts afterward. The way they slotted the knife in and twisted changed my initial reaction to a sense of awe in how antagonistic this film was to diehard fans of the franchise. If you understand the symbolism and utility of the environment and monsters in Silent Hill, you are in for a bastardization of those themes. It’s not as simple as monster-of-the-week-ifying Silent Hill, it places characters and monsters and plot points in contradiction in ways that hurt the lore and hurt the storytelling. It is maddening how the movie suffered because of this unwillingness to follow any facet of the original series. My god, the ending.

Music

• Code Race | Ruan Lott of Son Lux - I’m Marathon pilled, and you all are going to suffer because of it. Go listen.
• Twin Flame | Georgia Parker - Ouch, in the best way.
• Dancing on my Own | Xiu Xiu - This whole album is a fucking trip. If you need to ripped from reality and have each song kick you in the balls in a different way, give it full listen through.

Podcasts

• How Guitar Hero made everybody a rock star | Version History - If you were a part of the Guitar Hero moment, it’s impossible to forget the five-ish year run of a game that took over all of our lives. On my end, the highlight was as middle-school Guitar Hero themed birthday party! The fact that it fulfilled the fantasy of instrument mastery to the masses was enough, but it’s origins in academia and the split and acquisition of its two core developers make for a genuinely compelling story!

Books/Manga

• Nana | Omnibus Volume 1 | Ai Yazawa - I am constantly stunned that I like this series. Aside from the reputation, there is very little about Nana that would pique my interest. I would not pick this up if I saw it on the shelf - in 2001 or in 2026. Its reputation in the fashion and queer community is what sold me, and I still expected to slog through the series. I also don’t like the art style and I don’t like designer fashion. And yet, I was hooked. I’m still stunned by this fact, especially as I trained for almost an hour to get to a shop to by the anniversary volume 2. I felt naturally compelled to keep reading the hundreds of pages in volume 1 omnibus. I loved being taken off guard about the main characters journeys (and yes, names). I find their dynamic fun and silly. On the face, the series feels very shallow and lacking in anything particularly novel. But, I kept reading. I’m hoping digging into volume 2 will help give form to why I am really into Nana. For now, I think there is something about the early 00s aesthetic and punk attitude - something that pulls me into Durarara and Princess Jellyfish.
• Princess Jellyfish | Omnibus Volume 3 | Higashimura Akiko - It’s been awhile! I’m not sure why it took me so long to get back into Princess Jellyfish. Between a Christmas trip and multi-week work trip, I think I was just yanked out of my habits. It feels good, and easy, to jump back into this series. I’m not really sure what I’m looking for in it anymore, which is a fascinating feeling. As someone who almost exclusively reads yuri - if I’m reading manga, I have a more diverse palate - I find it so odd to be drawn into Princess Jellyfish. I think it’s the love of the aesthetic of this era, while I am familiar with the aesthetic there is something taboo and forever intriguing about what adults were up to in the era of my childhood. Excited to get deeper in!

YouTube

• How Yu-Gi-Oh Saved a Dying Mechanic | Team APS - I am a sucker for historical/retrospectives on my childhood hobbies. This is a really cool deep-dive on the fusion mechanic Yu-Gi-Oh, with a focus on the early days.
• I Fixed 3 Broken PlayStations | Sayaka’s Digital Attic - Truly the sun in the midst of winter. A super sweet, wholesome channel about repairing consoles! Go check her out immediately, it’s impossible not to like her.
• Quirks of Xbox Backwards Compatibility | Shanmania - Old console hardware is super hot right now, so this is a great video to prepare you for dusting off your PS1 or Xbox 360!
• Was it Good? - Adventure Quest | Josh Strife Plays - I cannot express how into this game I was as a kid. You could get access at school and even with 00s internet speeds, you could still get this running pretty quick in your browser. The aesthetic, as commenters have said, is DeviantArt era OC goodness. I am so thankful someone brought this game back into my algorithm and gave such a thorough dive into the mechanics, story, and developers. All of which I was blissfully unaware of as a kid.

Games

• A Hand With Many Fingers | Colestia | 2020 - Holy fuck. So, just to start, I played this with someone else and it took us 4 hours with an average HowLongtoBeat time of 1.5 hours - lmaooooo. I tried my ass off in this game. When I loaded this up, its atmosphere was so horror-coded we were pressed. High-key terrified. You go between the office - with the cork board and red twine - and the archives. When you go downstairs to the archive, the music turns off and it’s all horror ASMR. I loved getting scared, and scaring each other as we took this game waayyyyyy toooooo seriously. Light spoiler (which may be immediately obvious to most people when they play): this game (as far as I can discern from forums/reviews) is not about actually solving the mystery. This one unknown fact caused us to take double the play time. Which, again, is fine, but if that’s not fun to you, just keep that in mind. I had the time of my life and I wouldn’t change anything about my playthrough. Finishing the game and bitching about it for another hour or so was one of the better gaming moments I have had! Still doesn’t change the fucked issues about it.
• and Roger | TearyHand Studio | 2025 - This game had a lot of buzz last year. Game of the year contender for many, many people. Kind of in the same conversation as Despelote. I heard in multiple podcasts about how affecting this game is, and how it’s a required play. Automatic. So, I picked it on sale for a couple dollars and played it. Personally, this game didn’t get to me the way I have heard others describe. Don’t get me wrong, I was affected, but there were key moments in the 1-hour run time that really turned me off and took me out of the emotional immersion. The heterosexual and religious parts really set me up to be on the fence, but it was the lesson from the ending that really frustrated as I personally disagree that we should be promoting that behavior/perspective. Having said that, mechanically and visually I fucking love this game. The way that music and game mechanics puppeteer your emotions is a master class! Also, this is a game. I personally don’t like the comparisons to Florence because and Roger is actually a video game. It has mechanics, even if they’re trivial, but it’s the way they introduce and test the mechanics and your assumptions as you play that is so game-y. Each chapter introduces a new mechanics and the way they fuck with expectations is excellent. Really commendable. It pushes the immersion in a novel way given how limited interaction is within the game. Overall, I think most people should play this game. It’s only an hour and it may validate, reveal, or soothe a part of you and your life experience. It’s jarring for essentially everyone who plays and, if you know that going in, I think we could use more of that.