Thoughts and such by Joshua Tong
I like having goals in my video games, something to work towards. Something that once I’m done, I’m done. Once upon a time that was catching all 150 Pokémon, every now and then it’s a matter of reaching that sweet sweet 100% completion. More recently, it’s taken the shape of getting that elusive Platinum Trophy.… Continue reading Goals
I like books. I mean, I like reading. But I also like books. The two kinda go hand-in-hand for me, someone who’s considered getting an e-reader, but decided not to because he likes writing in his books too much. The pandemic has given me a deal of time to read, which is really fortunate since… Continue reading Just Browsing
I find Death Stranding’s postgame to be wonderfully meditative. I realize that the tranquility I suggest sounds quite incongruous with the game, one that I’ve said before manages to capture the terrible wonder of the sublime. But when you’ve finished the main story, uncovered the central mystery, and become quite adept at avoiding the ghostly… Continue reading Stranded Solace
I started playing Death Stranding again last night. I wanna Platinum it, that is get all the trophies in the game and really finish it. Also, I was watching The Great British Bake Off with the girlfriend, and the game seemed a nice match. Which, I realize, sounds kinda odd. Bake Off is a super-chill,… Continue reading Comforts
Like any kid obsessed with Star Wars, I daydreamed about hopping in an X-wing and flying around doing cool stuff. Battlefront II, from way back in ’05, scratched some of that itch. The newer Battlefront II did too, although its starfighter mode got precious little attention. I’ve toyed with checking out the X-wing games from… Continue reading Feeling Like A Starfighter Pilot
History, owing to the fact that it’s primarily written by white men, tends to be very white and very male. History is, ultimately, a narrative with facts chosen and framed to fit that narrative. Disagree? Look at how the Civil War is taught and remembered in the American South; it was firmly impressed upon me… Continue reading A Civilized History
I remember when the biggest problem on Facebook was an overabundance of FarmVille invites and not widespread propaganda and competing political views. Oh, I’m sure the latter was there even in the early days, but certainly not as pronounced as it is now. A scroll through my newsfeed is almost dominated by folks sharing something… Continue reading Social Network
It’s kinda odd to think that we’re still in the middle of a global pandemic. I’ve been called back into work a couple times a week, and there’s a bit more life out there (I’m no longer getting Death Stranding vibes when I go outside), and it sometimes looks like things are going back to… Continue reading Checking In
Like many people my age, I grew up playing video games. Many of those games have gone on to be considered classics, like Crash Bandicoot or Pokémon. There’s a lot of their DNA in modern games, like how Dark Souls’ cycle of learning how to counter enemy’s moves by repeatedly dying is very reminiscent of… Continue reading Playing Pretend
Around the lead up to Captain America: Civil War and again when Black Panther came out, there was some discussion online about T’Challa’s accent. The big question was how would the king speak? Popular thought posits that regality sounds 'proper,' and that 'proper' would be an English-tinged accent. When we, in pop-culture, think of kings… Continue reading The Speech of The Colonizer
Essays, Not Rants! 