A Thinker in Space

When I restarted this blog back in April with my reviews on the Avatar: The Last Airbender Tie-In Comics, I had no idea how consistent this blog’s presence in my life would be. Since then, I have begun many different series, including a complete listing of my favorite movies, a series of articles that was a joy to write. Lately, I have been working through some video games from my childhood in my series called Deep Cuts, which again has been quite enjoyable; have started reading and reviewing Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere, quietly introduced a section on video games for younger players, and have been reviewing novels for young readers. I have plenty more planned in the future, but for now, I think it’s time for a bit of retrospection and reflection.

The classroom doors have opened again, and the easy and breezy summer has come to a comfortable and satisfying end. With it, the time that I have has once again shrunk, as I dive back into my full-time role as a teacher, debate coach, and add the responsibilities of fatherhood to the mix.

Time is a commodity with an indeterminable value. It is a gift we are given, and something we spend, often recklessly. When you have a lot of time to spend, it is easy to forget its worth. When you have very little, suddenly minutes and hours are much, much more precious. With my schedule filling up left and right, the time that I have to consume the media I review also has shrunk, especially when combined with the games I have been playing that haven’t been featured here (such as Guild Wars 2, which I have been thoroughly enjoying and will certainly write a review of later on, and a Pokemon Nuzlock challenge that I started last year and have picked up again).

What does this mean for my bi-weekly model? Unfortunately, it means that for now I am going to drop to a once-a-week model, with an article published on Monday. I hope that this will not be a permanent change, but I don’t think that bi-weekly articles will be sustainable as the school year gets going! However, I am looking forward to continuing to publish these articles and keep this blog going!

Active Series Check-In

The Cosmere

Some of the series I am writing are likely to slow down now. The Cosmere novels are lengthy, and I will be reviewing Oathbringer when I finish but am expecting it to take me much, much longer to read through (the fact that Words of Radiance took me only a month is pretty ludicrous and had a lot to do with long days this summer spent relaxing on the beach). As I finish these, I will continue releasing them! I have been listening to the Oathbringer audiobook during drives, and have been thoroughly enjoying it – as much as Words of Radiance. I can’t wait to finish and review this one! Sanderson’s worldbuilding continues to be some of the best I’ve seen lately.

Underrated Games

This will continue to grow as I play games that aren’t discussed enough – I will continue to add to it as I write! I hope this series will end up being a solid catalogue of games for people who are looking for something new and relatively obscure. There is already a solid base here to explore!

Books for Readers Young and Old

This series just had a significant bump – I am publishing my Middle School Book Recommendations list in three parts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 [posting next week]). I will be continuing to add to this throughout the year! I may also add some of my favorite short stories to this list, as I teach quite a few that are quite enjoyable. I also will be working through more picture books, and, eventually, some YA and younger novels.

DC – Crisis to Flashpoint

It might feel like I’ve abandoned this series at this point, as currently there are only four articles included, and only three are reviews (all Swamp Thing). However, I assure you that I have not abandoned it, and have instead just gotten started! You can see where I am on the list here – but I am currently reading issues #9-20 of Justice League International (which I am loving so far). You can see on the list that since finishing Swamp Thing #64 (the last one reviewed), I have read a ton of content. The problem is that the content is either A. Short form (and I am doing my first short form round-up after A Lonely Place of Dying) or B. Not enough issues to constitute a full review. I have been collecting quite a bit of this content in Omnibus form. If I own it in an Omnibus, I am going to review the Omnibus (which is quite a few comics collected in one volume) after I finish its content. Some of these might be part one/part two reviews like Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, but some will just be one review. Writing them is going to be challenging, as I have been reading for a while with breaks and a lot of content in between. I will definitely need to review content before I write the review, but I am still looking forward to plowing forward!

Deep Cuts

This has been the series I have been most passionate about this summer, even though it is much more niche than most of the other content I post. It has been incredibly enjoyable to replay old games and review them – I intend to keep adding to this! Maybe not with the frequency I started with, but definitely often enough to keep the series active. I have a massive list of games I want to review for this set, some of which are incredibly obscure. Even though this content is not my most popular, I am writing it because A. I think it might be a fascinating set of articles for someone with no context of the content to read and B. I enjoy them. And really, that’s why I’m here – to write about things I enjoy discussing, even if there aren’t many people who are discussing them with me.

Final Thoughts

Life is changing, and that’s a good thing. I love all of the things that I am doing with my time, and writing this blog is one of them. The decision to rearrange this schedule was a difficult one, but it was formed out of necessity. In order to continue publishing regularly, I need to be careful with my ambition so that I don’t burn out.

Thank you for reading, for joining me on these adventures that I have been taking. I can’t wait to continue writing, playing games, and exploring things both old and new.

See you next time!

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