Do you remember we were standing here a year ago? Our minds were racing and time went slow If there was trouble in the world we didn’t know If we had a care, it didn’t show But now I worry our horizon’s bear nothing new ‘Cause I get this feeling and maybe you get it,…
All posts by Stefan
Caved and Bought World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
Above: Heavenly-forged Kyrian armour probably weighs thousands of pounds, so this out-of-place hyena mount ain’t having it. Roughly five months ago, Blizzard delayed the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Shadowlands, by about a month. That delay was one of the reasons I decided to cancel my pre-order and miss the game’s launch entirely. But old…
Cinema Quickie: Happy Happy Joy Joy (2020)
Every so often, a work of art comes along that shatters preconceptions, shifts the realm of possibility, and reinvigorates its medium. And every so often, that work is shepherded by a madman. Unfortunately, the twisted but beloved 90s cartoon Ren & Stimpy falls into that category. It was the result of burgeoning TV network Nickelodeon funding the…
Where Have All the Good MMORPGs Gone?
Thanks to COVID, I’ve been living a very stripped-down, monotonous life for nearly a year now. I rarely leave the house for non-essential excursions, day-to-day novelty is sparse, and my sense of community is dwindling. In response, my subconscious is yearning for a new place to call home — but not in the real world.…
Finding Time for Personal Projects
People with full-time jobs are often compelled to work on side projects outside of their regular work schedules. These side projects might be “side hustles,” pivots to other professions, or creative projects with no immediate expectation of profit. But entangled in the pursuit of these projects lies a dilemma: with limited recreational time, how much…
Car Detailing is Therapeutic
It’s been nearly a year since COVID-19 hitched a ride on humanity’s air travel infrastructure and blew its viral load across the globe. And I’ll admit: even as a practiced introvert, spending this much time at home is starting to get old. Thankfully, I’ve managed to shake things up with a new outdoor, social-distance-compliant hobby:…
Cyberpunk 2077’s Open World Filler Problem
Now that I’ve finished most of Cyberpunk 2077’s main story content, I’ve been spending my time in Night City a little differently: namely, by roaming its streets as a sort of deranged, cybernetically-enhanced kleptomaniacal Batman. I check my in-game map for the next set of side mission coordinates. Arrive on the scene and murder some…
Canadian Housing Costs Don’t Add Up
The city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada — and its surrounding area — has one of the most horrifically, criminally inflated housing markets I’ve ever seen. A $1 million CAD home in Vancouver (Source) Regardless of whether you’re renting or “buying,” surging housing costs in Vancouver and the Greater Vancouver Area have been displacing the…
What Cyberpunk 2077 Does Well
At first, I found Cyberpunk 2077 massively disappointing. It emphasizes player choice but offers little. Its open-world is pretty but mostly populated with filler content. And it frequently sidelines role-playing efforts so it can tell its own story. But fifty hours later, and having surrendered my expectations, I’m enjoying the game for what it is:…
9 Books I Read in 2020
Reading is a pastime I’ve come to enjoy more as I’ve grown older. And with my renewed appreciation of the medium came a goal to read more in 2020. For me, digital mediums like film and video games are often more stimulating than books (my blog archive is proof of that). But my entire working…