Ch. 20—Cheap Gaming PCs—Disney Shows—Fall Guys

Welcome to the July 2022 edition of...
What I'm Into, What I'm Working On
#29

Hi All

It's the middle of summer and there is not a whole lot to report, except...
it's hot.

But if you're anywhere in the northern hemisphere you probably know that. Here in North Florida, I am alternatively surprised by how oppressively hot it can be—even after all these years as a Floridian, I still forget just how much of a physical force the heat is in summertime—BUT ALSO by how not terrible it can be at other times.

Like, right now, I'm outside our local Whole Foods on their patio waiting for Wendy to get out of work (my parents have the kids for the week) and it's not bad at all. I'm not sweating and no mosquitoes are trying to carry me away to their swampy mosquito torture dungeon which for sure exists and is probably somewhere near Miami.

What I'm up to:

• I wrapped up (for now) my virtual-reality/metaverse/near-future story on Kindle Vella called Ghost_Layer with Chapter 20: What Could Go Wrong? I'm excited to eventually revisit and re-edit Ghost_Layer and turn it into an ebook.
• I added a couple new chapters to my memoir, also on Kindle Vella.
• Building some cheap gaming PCs with/for the kids, following the advice in this very helpful Popular Science post.
• Around-the-house projects and dealing with the never-ending infestation of stuff!
• Some highly enjoyable vacationing.

What I'm into:

• The latest Disney shows (of course): Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ms. Marvel.
  
  Overall, I liked Obi-Wan. The production value was as good as any movie, but there were a few plot points that felt weak and/or unrealistic and/or cobbled together. Also, we started A New Hope right after finishing Obi-Wan... wow, did he age A LOT in 9 years! Also, his attitude seems to have changed quite a bit, from defeated and over-cautious to care-free and almost reckless. I like both versions, but they don't seem like the same character. Obviously, we can chalk that up to sitting on Tatooine for 9 years with not much to do, I guess, but it just seems a little inconsistent. Either way, I think we can all agree that little girl who played Leia was freaking amazing.
  
  Ms. Marvel is right up my alley. Superheroes AND immigrant/first-generation American family dynamics/tension/comedy AND coming-of-age high school drama AND world-traveling fish-out-of-water culture-clash AND mysterious family history. Just when I think there is no way they could pull me into YET ANOTHER superhero origin story... they find a way.
  
  In both these cases, I haven't read any reviews or what other people think, other than my wife and close friends, so I don't know if my response is typical or not. Sometimes when I read negative reviews, it sours my opinion and other times, when I read positive reviews, I'm like, 'oh yeah, that's true, they did do a good job of that,' but these are my raw, unaffected opinions.
• The MMO summer I mentioned in the last email letter has kind of stalled out, to be honest. But there are two things I can talk about.
  
  The first is a podcast and online magazine called Massively OP which is dedicated to the world of massively multiplayer online games. I've been learning a lot about the genre from Bree and Justin and their podcast.
  
  The second is a game that's just recently gone free-to-play called Fall Guys which is like playing a cute minion-y version of a Japanese game show with 60 other people and seeing how many rounds you can make it. It's not in the MMORPG category, but it is definitely in the MMO category. It's a little frustrating, but mostly fun, especially with other people in the same room who are also playing and laughing with/at each other.

That's it for now! Thanks so much for following along! What are you up to this summer?