Page 2 of 3

#13 – I complain about smartphones for 458 words

07/10/2026 / Evan / 0 Comments

Hello again! For my second blog post of the day (after a long few hour interlude of procrastinating…) I’m here again. This time I’d like to talk about something small I don’t really like: modern smartphones!

Let me preface this with saying they’re great technology, and in a lot of ways the best they’ve ever been, especially in terms of performance. But there’s a few things about modern phones that personally just bother me, so I get to yap and complain about them, as this is my blog damn it!

1. Screen Size

The first thing that I dislike about modern smartphones is screen size. They keep getting bigger! Now while the technology improving to allow this is impressive, I just don’t find them easy to use. I tried modifying an old Google Pixel (first gen) about a week ago, and while I couldn’t do what I wanted with the phone in installing LineageOS, the 5-inch screen on it vs. the larger one on my iPhone 15 or in the case the iPhone compared to my previous phone, the Samsung S10e, the smaller phone is much easier to use. It’s nice to be able to use the thing with one hand, and that’s really something I can’t get with larger phones.

2. Camera Bumps and “Thinness”

The camera bumps on modern phones are another small thing that annoy me about modern phones. A great example of this is the iPhone Air, which is advertised as the thinnest iPhone ever. And while at its thinnest point, it is true that the phone is thinner, the phone has a sizable camera bump! Despite phones being thinner, because of this huge bump, they really aren’t! It’s like my phone has a tumor that prevents it from balancing alright on a table. I’d much rather a phone at the same thickness as the bump, with the extra unused space being used for a battery increase. It would improve the phone, while also not affecting usability very much. Phone cases have to be that thick, anyways.

3. Everything is the Same Now

This is kind of a good thing; in a lot of ways, phones have developed to an extent where we know what works and what doesn’t. But a market of Apple, Samsung, and Google releasing phones that are just incremental improvements, with no radical innovation or experimentation is admittedly kind of boring. I’d love to see something new.

Those are my big three annoyances with modern smartphones. Don’t get me wrong, my phone along with all new phones are fantastic devices. But I’d love to see a little bit more of that insane experimentation of the early 2010s again. Thank you for reading, and have a fantastic rest of your day.

#12 – Triple-Header!

07/10/2026 / Evan / 0 Comments

Hello again! If you’re reading this along with how I’ve wrote it, there’s been a pause! It may seem like I’ve given up on daily blogs, but fear not! I was just away from home for 3 days and now I am back. This post will be the story explaining why.

My blog shows the date that a post is published, but not the time. Usually during the summer, I like to stay up really late and enjoy all nighters, as that is something nearly impossible for me to do during the school year, at least without repercussions that I don’t want to deal with. But during the summer, because I don’t have as much to do, I can be free to stay up until 3, 4, or 5 o’clock every day and then wake up at noon. Is it smart? Probably not. Do I enjoy it? Very much so.

So this story begins on Monday, July 6^th. I woke up in the afternoon, ready for another great day of my summer where I relax and stay up all night. It’s a peaceful life. At around 3:00 the next day, I start to realize that I am oddly not tired. Usually when I pull an all nighter, no matter how long it has been since I’ve awoken, I start to feel tired as the morning starts. So, not feeling anything at all was interesting. My assumption was that I’d eventually get tired, though; by 5 or 6:00, I realized that this wasn’t going to happen. Not that I minded, as usually the more “insomnia-like” days of my life are fun ones. Later that morning, at about 10:00, I’m talking with my mom, and I say that it would be nice to do something interesting today. My mom suggests we tour a college, and I say yes. After a small bit of planning, we leave to tour Seton Hall in New Jersey. It was a very nice school. On the way there, we also ended up expanding our plans to tour colleges for two more days, with Princeton and Villanova set for the next day, and Columbia the following one.

Now for why this had affected the daily blog posts is simple: each day, by the time I had gotten home, I was a bit drained, and went to bed shortly after. Funnily enough, for a blog post that starts with me talking on how I like all nighters, the posts got delayed because I went to bed early. Technically, by my definition of “daily blog posts,” this was OK for one of the days, as my “insomnia-like” 30-hour long day included post #11, which was a fun one to write. But for the next day and the one after, I had missed a post. This isn’t much of an issue, as I can just write more and make up for it. Daily blog posts are less a requirement to me as they are a guideline for how many I’d like to write. And that’s why this is part one of a triple header for writing blog posts. I’m coming up with the ideas for them as I write, so I have no idea what is coming next, but please enjoy those posts too, and thank you for reading this one. Have a fantastic rest of your day.

#11 – A Few of My Favorite Things

07/07/2026 / Evan / 0 Comments

Everyone has favorites. It’s just what comes with having opinions. They’re fun, even! I always have thought that knowing the favorites of someone, as in what they like, is a simple way to get to know a person. And for said person, it’s a fun little time for them to talk on something they love. So that’s what I’m going to address, a few of my favorite things.

Favorite Thing: Portal 2

I’ll start with my favorite video game, mostly due to it being the one that’s been my favorite for the longest tenure, if you will. Portal 2 is so lovely to me because of how it blends a simple and fun gameplay loop with comedic elements. Solving puzzles in Portal is always so much fun to do; thinking on how you place said portals to get the button on the cube or to the exit door is a simple task, but one that is expanded upon in such fun ways. The amount of new layers to the puzzles in this game, such as the lasers, gels, funnels, and bridges, are all fantastic add-ons to that foundation that Portal laid. While the original is a great game in its own right, Portal 2 expands upon the game play to such an extent, where along with the aforementioned comedic elements, it creates a game that is such a joy to play and replay over and over, even if just to see how fast you can beat it this time. I’ve made it a tradition to replay the game every winter break from school. To talk more on the comedic aspects of the game, the voice acting performances, especially from J.K Simmons and Stephen Merchant, add so much character to the game. I die laughing every time at the lemons rant or “The Part Where He Kills You;” I’m not even sure how they came up with something that has just the right amount of absolute absurdity to it, but it makes for such a great experience.

Favorite Thing: Westworld

I tend to be a fairly big sci-fi fan, as is evident by my first two things listed here being some form of sci-fi. Westworld is some of the best I’ve ever seen. The show manages to have some of the most engaging action sequences and themes of any I’ve seen. The first season is commonly praised, especially for Anthony Hopkins’ masterclass of a performance as Dr. Ford, but I am in the somewhat small camp that believes this is just the opening act of a masterpiece. I think the second season is my personal favorite, as the expansion into the worldbuilding, especially with the company of Delos lead to some of the most interesting concepts in the show. The episode “The Riddle of the Sphinx” is a huge highlight for this, but I think the whole season is all equally as fantastic. The acting in this show is absolutely fantastic, the whole ensemble brings their all for four fantastic seasons. I will particularly highlight Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffery Wright, Ed Harris, Anthony Hopkins, and Aaron Paul, who I think all add so much to the characters on the screen. It is also interesting to see the show shift from its western elements into more of a cyberpunk one in seasons three and four, and I think the outlooks on artificial intelligence and free will are some of the show’s best material in a show that has no real dull spot. I truly wish this show got its fifth and final season, but as is, Westworld still remains my favorite show I’ve ever watched.

Favorite Thing: Random Access Memories

The last of my favorite things I will talk on for today is my favorite album of all time, that being Daft Punk’s final album, released in 2013. Random Access Memories is so great to me because it packs so much emotion into the music. Every single second of every song on the album feels finely crafted to create an album which feels like a tribute to music. There is a fun irony to an album created by a robotic EDM duo, in that this one sounds so human. From the triumphant moments of “Give Life Back to Music,” to the more relaxed of “Motherboard,” and the sheer joy of “Get Lucky,” or the journey of tracks like “Giorgio by Moroder” and “Touch,” the album creates such a vast soundscape that I can relisten over and over and still find little details on every listen in a perfect collection of songs that can manage to fit every last mood that life can bring.

These are a few of my favorite things. I hope you enjoyed this yap, it was a very fun one to write! Have a fantastic rest of your day.

#10 – The Little Moments (Review of HBO’s The Sopranos)

07/06/2026 / Evan / 0 Comments

Hello again! Today’s post is my Sopranos review, but before I begin I’d like to give myself more promises to write. I want to do a review of a few Genesis albums, specifically and then there were three... and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. I just got both on vinyl, and I’ve actually never heard the former (I got it for a great price), whereas the latter I’ve heard but think it would make for an interesting review. Anyways, with that out of the way, here’s the review. (Contains mild? spoilers, might be more than I think)

It is interesting to note just how much of a risk The Sopranos was at the time. It’s easy to say 26 years on that of course this show would work, but this was a television landscape from before Breaking Bad, Dexter, Game of Thrones, Better Call Saul, and Mad Men. Main characters were not bad people, and TV was a safer medium than film. Whereas film directors could experiment and be “edgy,” meaning to try new, unique things and see where it goes, the furthest TV had gone was Twin Peaks, which was cancelled after two seasons for just getting too insane (and even that show was helmed by a film director). This is to say The Sopranos resembles film in that its a show so willing to experiment, even in its premise: a mob show about the fall of the mob, where the boss is a fat man in therapy.

That premise works wonders, for two reasons. The first is simple: it differentiates it from even the greats of the mob film. Could you imagine Henry Hill or Michael Corleone in therapy? The second is more important to the show: it is a premise that leads to a lot of creative potential. The show uses therapy to look at Tony Soprano’s life as a boss, both of his literal family and mob family, along with his life and relation with his mother, and how these three things interact leading Tony to panic attacks. This is just what the first season does. It’s already a fascinating premise, and the show has the imagination to build on it later.

The first season is one of my favorites of the show. The main conflict of the season is Tony’s relationship with his mother Livia Soprano. That conflict is one of the most well-written conflicts in all of television, and it is one that even when resolved still has effects on its show to its last episode. In short, this isn’t a season one where the show has to find its footing, the show came out the gate swinging. The highlights of this season are Tony’s interactions with his mother, obviously, as well as his therapy sessions with Dr. Melfi. The therapy scenes are absolutely the draw to this show for me: I think it’s less a mob show with therapy than a therapy show with the mob.

The show also does a fantastic job on getting you to Tony’s side in its early episodes. This may seem an odd point to say, as shouldn’t all shows make you like the protagonist? It is important to say for the obvious reason as it is clear even in season one that Tony is not a good person. This fact becomes glaringly apparent as the show goes on (I will highlight it at a certain point especially so), but it is interesting that the show establishes it now. Even if you can see his side, the show doesn’t want you to be with Tony. I think the show even manages that dissonance through the therapy scenes: Melfi serves as a voice of reason and control, to a man who becomes increasingly more dangerous and aggressive as the show, and even the season goes on. I highlight a line from season two, where Melfi argues that “to be a better mob boss, read The Art of War” rather than go to therapy.

After the early death of the boss Jackie Aprile in episode four of the show, Tony gets into a dispute with his uncle Junior Soprano over who will be the next boss of the mob. This dispute forms the other of two conflicts in Tony’s family throughout season one that makes that season so strong: Tony’s fight for control vs. his uncle. This is a very underrated aspect of this season, especially because the rest of the show doesn’t let this tension continue as Junior is put under house arrest and then gets Alzheimer’s in the later seasons. Junior’s older mind and want for control, along with Livia’s manipulation to get control are amazingly written character flaws that create a conflict for Tony throughout the season, and it gets best when the two interact. At the half point of the season, Livia, out of pure hatred for her son’s therapy, manipulates Junior in such a way that Junior orders his assassination.

The assassination is the focus of the season’s penultimate episode, “Isabella,” which I think is one of the finest of the show. It introduces an aspect I absolutely adore, which is Tony’s dreams. His hallucination of Isabella as an ideal maternal figure is a fantastic look at Tony’s mind, and a great introduction to the more surreal aspects of the show seen in Tony’s dreams, which remain a highlight throughout, especially in episodes like “Funhouse” and “The Test Dream” which I will dive into later. The assassination of Tony later in the episode fails, with Tony escaping, in an action sequence that is where I think the show really begins to lock in on its action-oriented sequences. Absolutely fantastic stuff.

What’s crazy about this season, and this show by proxy, is that an episode as great as “Isabella,” which if in almost any other show would be far and away the best of the series, is my 4th favorite. The episodes “College,” “I Dream of Jeanie Cusamano,” and especially “Nobody Knows Anything” are also fantastic episodes that are some of the best ever put on television, while each having its aspects that make it so unique to this show, whether it be the exploration of Tony’s relationship with his daughter and wife in “College”, the culmination of the season’s arcs in “I Dream,” and especially the stress and dread of “Nobody Knows Anything.” That episode is so great I could probably write a blog post just on it. Regardless, season one is not only one of the best debut seasons a show has ever had, but one of my favorite TV seasons of all time. It leaves a fantastic benchmark for the show to go on as it progresses.

I’m not quite sure why I had so much to say on the first season in particular, but this is not to say that the show’s second outing is any worse. The additions of Janice Soprano, Furio, and Bobby Baccala are great for the show, as they are some of the best characters in it. One thing I will say about season two is that while I love the expansion of Tony’s family drama through Janice, and the mob stuff relating to the Italy trip, Junior’s house arrest, and especially Pussy, I think the Richie Aprile storyline is a bit weaker than season one’s conflict of Tony vs. Junior. This is not to say that the Tony/Richie conflict is bad, again! It’s a fantastically written conflict, and I think the resolution of it is a great twist. I just think that it is the weakest part of a season that is otherwise swinging just as hard as its first one.

Season two also ends the what might be the strongest of any season of the show. It’s very close, as I think that seasons 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 all gun for it, but the 1-2 punch of “The Knight in White Satin Armor” and “Funhouse” is so good. The former’s exploration of Tony’s mistress Irina leads to some of the saddest but best-written scenes in the whole show, and it is paired with the great end to Richie Aprile along with the story of Janice for the season. “Funhouse” is fascinating in that its a true shock the first view: it takes the surrealist dream elements of “Isabella” and cranks them up beyond 11, as Tony’s subconcious is basically screaming at him to confront Pussy. It’s an absolutely thrilling end to the season, as you really do think the action of the season has come to an end, just for the finale to come in and end it all with a bang. The end of Pussy is yet again some of the best writing of the show.

As the show carries on to its third season, I think it starts to face a little bit of an identity crisis; while seasons one and two aren’t necessarily “happy” seasons of television, they are much lighter than what is to come in the latter three seasons of the show. This leaves the third season the role to bridge the two, which it manages well, (this is The Sopranos!) although I do think it to be the weakest season of the show. Part of this may be due to the circumstances around the making of the season: the death of Nancy Marchand meant that the her role for the season had to be cut, which is sad, as Livia testifying against Tony for the Scatino bustout just seems like a dream storyline. But the opening to this season, in the fun “Mr. Ruggerio’s Neighborhood” and “Proshai, Livushka” are something of a new beginning and end to the old times of the show. “Ruggerio’s” sets up the FBI bug of Tony’s house, a plot point which although seemingly insignificant starts what becomes the beginning of the end of the “peaceful” era of the show when said bug is compromised, and “Livushka” ends Livia’s time on the show and her major role in Tony’s life, but leaves her as something of a dark influence over Tony for the rest of the show as he becomes more and more unrecognizable.

This shift in Tony, along with the mob as a whole, is most apparent in the episode “University,” another great one, and one of the darkest of the show. Focusing on both Meadow’s life at Columbia University and the Bada Bing stripper Tracee, this is an episode that really shows the mob at their worst. I mentioned earlier I’d highlight the turning point of Tony’s character, and this is it. It is an episode that reminds you through the dark comedy of the show, these people are irredeemable, more focused on the “disrespecting of the Bing” than Ralphie beating a pregnant 19 year old to death, and how Tony’s sociopathic mind can only empathize with Tracee’s innocence. It is a horrific episode to watch, especially in that ending, but one done so well.

From this point on, The Sopranos shifts from a dark comedy drama about Tony’s life into much more of a deep dive into the evil of the man, and the show becomes much darker. The show shows this literally through its use of color. If you were to watch an episode from seasons 1 and 6 back-to-back, you’ll see a shift to gray. While there may be moments of brevity throughout, like the comedy of Season 3’s “Pine Barrens,” a mostly stand-alone episode that is something of a “comedy of errors,” which I think the show needs every now and then, this is no longer a “fun” show. I think it’s easy to see why “Pine Barrens” is a common favorite Sopranos episode: it’s one of the last fun ones.

As season 3 ends, the other two main storylines are Tony’s relationship with Gloria in his personal life, and Jackie Jr. in his mob life. The Gloria storyline is yet another highlight in a show full of them: the interaction with the borderline personality Gloria are a fantastic continuation of the exploration of Tony’s psyche, and some of the best written and acted scenes in the show. The Jackie Jr. storyline, on the other hand, I feel less strongly on. While I think the plot itself is good, it moves at a very slow pace, but doesn’t go into much depth, so Jackie Jr’s death is not a sad moment, but to me rather one of indifference. It’s one of the few weaknesses in another great season, though.

Season 3 also has a few more essential story beats, like the entire “Employee of the Month” episode, which I will not comment on much to leave unspoiled and not telling Tony is a sad but reasonable decision. In addition, while it is most important to seasons 4 and 5, after the FBI bug on Tony’s house is lost, they decide to flip Adrianna, which is another great story arc, especially in season 5.

Season 4 continues the show getting darker with a more personal season, focused on the relationship of Tony and Carmela. If the draw of the show for you is the personal drama and therapy, this is some of the show’s finest work, but if you’re here for the mob stuff, it is a weaker season. The culmination of the Ralphie storyline is great as always, Joe Pantoliano plays him as such a hilarious but horrible man, but outside of that, the mob stuff isn’t as much a factor. Not that this is a problem, I’ve already said I love this show for the drama, and it’s better than ever. The expansion of Furio’s character and his love of Carmela is an impeccable story, and when Tony and Carmela’s relationship come to a head in “Whitecaps,” it leads to what is quite possibly the best scene in the whole show in Tony and Carmela’s argument.

Season 5 introduces some new characters out of prison, most importantly Steve Buscemi’s Tony Blundetto and Frank Vincent’s Phil Leotardo. I am a huge Steve Buscemi fan, so his addition leads to one of my favorite characters in the show. His attempts at a legitimate life, only to lash out and end up back in the mob life, is a great but heartbreaking story.

Season 5 also happens to have the best 3 episode run in the series, another season-ender. This is why I was unsure if season 2 had the best one, because “The Test Dream,” “Long Term Parking,” and “All Due Respect” are all in my top 10 for the show easily, and probably my top 5 as well, although that one is closer. The first has the finest dream sequence in the whole series, which is probably also my favorite scene in the series. It’s an elaborate, surreal experience that truly showcases the creativity of this show. The second is the most tragic episode of the whole series, and maybe the greatest. I never want to watch it again, though. It’s just too much misery! I can’t take it again! The finale of the season continues this despair in another great culmination to a season, this time the arc of Tony Blundetto. Yet again, great, tragic, and sad stuff. Highly recommend.

If the pure despair of the ending to Soprano’s 5th season wasn’t enough of some of the best TV ever, the 6th keeps this train rolling. The first 3 episodes are a fantastic trilogy I will leave entirely unspoiled. I said too much in this review! But it is at this point that in some ways The Sopranos is largely unrecognizable from that fun dark comedy drama we saw in its first season. The magic of the show is that this works. The show transitioned from one to the other gradually, and both are written equally as well. Especially in the second half (Season 6B, as it’s sometimes called), the show comes to a fantastic end. “Soprano Home Movies” feels like one last moment of brevity, yet even that one gets intense as Tony and Bobby fight, and from that point on, the show marches on to a dark but phenomenal ending. That final run of “Kennedy and Heidi” to “Made In America” is some of the best of the show. My only complaint is that the end of the Melfi storyline, while I like in concept, feels way too rushed. If it was built up across all of season 6, I think it would work better. As is, it feels sudden that it all really goes down in a single episode. Although that single episode, “The Blue Comet,” is so good. The escalation of Tony and Phil’s conflict, and the ensuing bloodshed is amazing, and it almost all comes together in “Made in America,” a finale which addresses everything, and leaves one last mystery for the road in its final shot.

Yeah, it’s The Sopranos. It’s not insane to say it’s good. But the blending of comedy and drama, and the shift of those elements as it goes on, along with the focuses on how the show exemplifies these two elements is to me what creates such a great show.

Overall: Would Recommend

Thank you for reading this post! It was a bigger one, I think the biggest I’ve done by a large margin. Have a fantastic rest of your day.

#9 – Delay

07/04/2026 / Evan / 0 Comments

Hello again! This blog post is an apology that I need more time to think on The Sopranos. To really write a good review, I think I have to sit on it another day or two.

In terms of what I did today, I finally got the drum set for Rock Band. This will be important to my presumable Rock Band 4 and Riffmaster reviews. Not really the Riffmaster one, but considering the RB4 review is stemming from the Riffmaster, it makes sense, or at least I think it does? I need sleep.

So that’s all I have to say today. These are really short posts the past few days, so much so I’ve stopped naming these posts after songs and started to come up with titles for them! I kid; the actual reason is that I’d like to change up the naming every week to differentiate the blogs as they go on. So week 1 was music, week 2 is actual titles, and so on. But regardless, I hope you enjoyed this (really short) post. Have a fantastic rest of your day.

#8 – Technically A Post

07/03/2026 / Evan / 0 Comments

Sopranos review tomorrow

#7 – “Turn It On Again”

07/02/2026 / Evan / 0 Comments

Hello again! It is officially the end of one week of “daily” blogs. Today I saw two movies in theaters, so this post will be a review of them. This is an interesting double feature, for sure, but I didn’t want to dripfeed blog content I write for myself. My thoughts on it are more “just get out what you have to say!,” so I have.

Supergirl

The first movie I saw was Supergirl, the next film in the James Gunn-led DC Universe. I have been a huge fan of Gunn’s work since Guardians of the Galaxy, and I have been excited to see his transition to more of a production role, building a saga instead of films. This film is particularly important to this transition as last year’s Superman was was written and directed by Gunn, so this would be the first film solely with him having a production role.

Technicially, the film is done very well. The CGI that tends to dominate a modern superhero film, and often looks very ugly looks quite nice here. That may be due to the length of time between releases in this new DC Universe as compared to the previous DCEU and Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it is a strength of the film nonetheless. The cinematography is another technical strong point of the film: I found a lot of the shots very creative, and also felt that they complimented the personality of Supergirl and Milly Alcock’s performance very well. One technical aspect I will criticize, however, is the music choice. I felt the licensed music clashed, rather than complimented the film, and didn’t really mesh with Kara’s (Supergirl’s) character either.

Alcock’s performance is easily the highlight in this film. She manages wonderfully both the more comedic scenes of Kara, making up a plan as she goes along, with the more dramatic flashbacks showing the destruction of Krypton and Argo. Jason Momoa also gives a very strong performance as Lobo in this film, although I do think that while I enjoyed his presence, he really didn’t feel necessary to this film, but this is more of a problem with the film’s script, which I think is the weakest link here.

There are parts of this script, like the aforementioned scenes on Argo, that reach the brilliance of Superman. But these great moments, and the performances with them, are contrasted by the main plot of the film, which I found at times dull. While I think Ruthye’s quest for revenge and her collaboration with Kara’s quest to save Krypto is a good hook, the way in which it is written makes for the least interesting part of the film. The script just doesn’t expand enough on the relationship between Ruthye and Kara to really make you care. I saw this film with my friends, and that is a sentiment that they both shared, with one of them even going as far to say “I don’t remember the name of the sword girl.” Lobo, while being done by an incredibly fun performance by Momoa, is moreso a character that repeatedly pops up in the story, rather than a significant element, which I think is another huge letdown of the script. It really is a shame, as I think the first and second acts of this film are genuinely great, and that there are even moments of greatness in the film’s third act, but that said third act is too inconsistent, due to the aforementioned lack of expansion on the film’s characters.

While I was largely critical in this last paragraph, I do not want to confuse you. This is still a very enjoyable film! My critiques come from a place of enjoyment whereas in my opinion if that extra bit were to be added, this film would be great, to the extent where I would call it as good as Superman, a film which I adored. Milly Alcock’s performance alone is so much fun that I’d say this one is worth a trip to the theater to see.

Overall: Would Recommend

Jackass: Best and Last

With this film, there is a huge strength and weakness to it: it is partially older content from the Jackass TV show and films of the past. This is a strength, as it’s hard to argue bits like the “Poo Cocktail Supreme” aren’t funny, even if you’ve seen them before. But, it is also a weakness, because you’ve seen it before. I would argue that a lot of the comedic value of the film comes from shock value, so knowing what will happen does partially spoil it.

Yet, even with that said, this is still a hilarious film. The older bits are not exactly the same, with extensions and changes to camera angles that I think do create for somewhat of a new experience. The best example of this is the “Magic Trick” bit, where you get to see both takes of Johnny Knoxville against a bull. To see him get demolished, and decide it just isn’t enough and do it again with a bigger bull, is funny, even if you may have already seen the bigger bull in Jackass Forever. The highlight of the extended old bits is Forever’s “Silence of the Lambs,” now featuring Bam Margera. Obviously, the bit was first designed for him, before later being used with other members of the crew, but Margera’s run-through of it was, in my opinion, the funniest of them all.

The new bits were also a very fun part of this film as well. Many of them play off of the fact that the guys are older now, and I think this led to some decent comedic potential. I will especially highlight the “Human Pretzel” stunt, which I thought was absolutely hilarious. I do think that the new cast members introduced in Forever really didn’t get much to do, and what they did get was rather one-note. There’s only so many times the joke can be about how fat Zackass’s ass is, and I think the film went one or two over that limit.

Regardless, when getting to the big ending of this film, I came to a realization. My chest had started to hurt from what had pretty much been 90 consecutive minutes of laughter. Bringing it all together with a callback to the first film’s opening, along with the credits montage, was, I think, a great ending to the film. It’s hard to say they could’ve had a much better ending, as even with the sidelining of the newer members, it is admittedly fun to see these idiots hurt themselves one last time.

Overall: Would Recommend

Thank you for reading today’s post. I hope you’re enjoying them as much as I like to write them! As an aside, I’ve used the same ending for these posts all week. Maybe I should, but I don’t think I’ll come up with a different ending for these posts. I like this. To me it just feels like a nice little peaceful end to my yapping. Regardless, have a fantastic rest of your day.

#6 – “Hold On”

07/01/2026 / Evan / 0 Comments

Hello again! I’m sort of noticing a pattern starting to form with these posts: long–short. One day will be long, the next short. And the ones in-between are kinda a mystery. So I guess it’s more apt to say long-short-who knows. I don’t have any major updates on stuff I’ve watched or read today. I expect those will have big days, meaning I’ll write a huge amount about something, but only after a few day gap. So today will be more a scattering of thoughts of unknown length as I haven’t written it yet! Let’s see what I think of.

Explanation for the Naming of My Blog Posts

with bonus yap on Call Me Maybe

First off, I’m going to explain how I name my blog posts, because it’s a short story I can use an excuse to explain how great of a song Call Me Maybe is. I just pick a song title from my summer playlist that I think fits well enough with what I’m yapping about.

Now onto yapping about how great Call Me Maybe is, have you even heard the part where she sings “Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad” because that bridge might be the best part of any pop song released in the 2010s. It’s either that, or the guitar outro of Daft Punk’s track Get Lucky. That bridge is just way too much fun, and I would say it’s really that simple, but there’s a tiny bit more to the track than that. That bridge has a subtle guitar in the background, and that along with the strings in the chorus really help the song build a little as it progresses. It all comes together for what is still one of my favorite pop songs 14 years on, the rare song I can like just as much at age 4 and age 104.

Thoughts on “modern” Call of Duty

Now for something completely different. Likely due to the impending re-release of 2010’s Black Ops and its 2012 sequel, I’ve been thinking on the Call of Duty franchise. When I was younger, I was big into it, playing mostly the Black Ops sub-series but also dabbling into the latest entries into the franchise, which at the time would’ve been Vanguard and Modern Warfare 2 (2022). It’s a bit of an argument in the Call of Duty fanbase on the franchise’s “golden age,” and of course everyone has their own answer. Was it the run of games from 2007 to 2012? Perhaps the “Advanced Movement” trilogy of Advanced Warfare, Black Ops III, and Infinite Warfare is the answer.

But there is also the modern era of Call of Duty, and its vague starting point. Some say this era is a “Warzone era” defined by the creation of the free-to-play battle royale mode of the same name, along with the integration of the games into it. This era is usually defined as starting with 2019’s Modern Warfare. My outlook of the eras is that the “Warzone era” is two eras in itself: one from 2019-2022 based on “Warzone 1,” and 2022-the present on “Warzone 2.” The difference is the game to which Warzone was based on, being Modern Warfare or its sequel, Modern Warfare 2. A huge difference of these two eras was a small creative limitation created with Warzone 2: the developers must use a unified game engine.

A game engine shouldn’t be significant to game development, but in this case it is, as in the past each developer would have their own fork of the same engine, with tweaks to create a different “feel” to each game. This helped differ Black Ops 4 from Infinite Warfare or World War II. This “feel” was both mechanical and graphical, and I think both are a huge reason why I just don’t click with modern Call of Duty. Whereas even in the “post-golden age” of 2013-2022, I still found the series very enjoyable, and in my opinion to the point I’d say those games aren’t much, if at all, worse than the era preceding, these new games just don’t work. Maybe it is my personal distaste for Modern Warfare 2 (2022), but every game since has just felt like a skin over that one. While there are iterations, like the expansion to movement in Black Ops 6 and 7, it still has that same feel, which feels much more weighted and less fluid, which I think to some extent ruin the games.

There’s also an argument for the “Warzone-ification” of the Call of Duty games. This argument, which I was against for Black Ops Cold War and Vanguard, I tend to agree with for the newer games. I understand one reason for the unification of engines was that when including content from the games in Warzone, things are now much less likely to break, as seen especially with the “Verdansk ’84” era of Warzone in 2021 from the differences between Modern Warfare (2019) and Black Ops Cold War. With the unified engine, the developers do not face this issue, but at the same time, it creates some new limitations. Things have to be done a way able to be easily ported to a battle royale, which is fundamentally very different from 6v6 multiplayer or the zombies horde-defense mode. And I think this change causes that same “feel” for every game, and as mentioned, it’s a “feel” I just don’t vibe with.

Not to mention, the unification of Call of Duty came with the unification of multiple games under one “Call of Duty” launcher, for the most recent few games and Warzone. That’s something I despise: it removes a difference from the game at a surface level for years. How is Black Ops 6 any different from Black Ops 7 when they’re on the same app on your Xbox? They’re different games! Why should they be together? Let each game have its own app and menu! You shouldn’t have to go through a centralized “Call of Duty” launcher to launch into a game. You should just be able to play it.

Unfortunately, I don’t see Activision going back on the “unified” Call of Duty. The death of that hope for me was 2023’s Black Ops 6. Seeing all of the uniqueness of the Treyarch games gone, it just felt like a certain fun to the series was gone, replaced by a focus on a battle royale I have no interest in powered by a game I didn’t like, which now will poison the games that I’d have a chance of liking.

That’s all I have for today. That’s a lie, actually. I always have more, but I don’t really want to create a 3000 word behemoth of a blog post. I usually write a bit and think “I should save some more for tomorrow.” Writing that made me think of the policy to not overdeliver by Bungie during Destiny 2, which was one of the many mistakes that game made. Maybe that’ll be blog post #12. I hope you enjoyed this one, even if it was very Call of Duty focused and you hate the series. Have a fantastic rest of your day.

#5 – “In the Meantime”

06/30/2026 / Evan / 0 Comments

Hello again! My last post I talked of projects that I’d like to experiment with and follow up on in a few days or weeks. I’m still doing that! Give me some time! So, what do I cover now? Whatever I feel like, just like before. Here’s my thoughts on some stuff I’ve been spending my time on as of late.

Project Hail Mary (Currently on Chapter 13)

I’ve been reading Andy Weir’s novel Project Hail Mary, and it’s an incredible novel, so I’d like to comment a little on what I think so far. To start, Weir’s writing style is amazing. He manages to focus upon scientific accuracy, allowing the reader to “see” a character’s worldview, and doses of comedy and drama all at once into what I found so far to be an addicting read. In all of my sessions so far, I sat down to read one or two chapters before bed, and kept reading. It’s hard to put the book down, and that is a great thing.

Helping this addictive nature is the plot of the book. Grace having to save the Earth from Astrophage while slowly gaining back his memories is such a fun hook, and the novel takes it in such creative ways, especially as he finds Eridian life with Rocky. This is pretty much where I am in the novel.

I would end this segment with predictions of what I think will happen next, but I really don’t know. That’s another strength of the novel: it keeps you guessing, but what does end up occurring makes sense. I highly recommend reading this one! After finishing, I’ll probably take a look at the film adaptation, though I’ve heard that one is great too.

Destiny 2

Destiny has always been a franchise I’ve had an interest in. Hearing of the “next masterpiece” that was an experience with friends from Bungie, the guys who made Halo, sounded fantastic when I was younger. Despite this, it took a good few years for me to really try the game out for more than an hour or two. I tried it a little at the launch of free-to-play during the Shadowkeep expansion as well as when the DLC was free on Xbox Game Pass during Beyond Light, but it just didn’t click.

In 2023, right before the launch of the Lightfall expansion, I bought The Witch Queen, mostly for its legendary campaign, which I hoped would be like Halo. Once I started to play, I realized I liked this game. Then, a few months later (I can’t remember what detracted me), I got more into the game. From this point, which was Lightfall’s Season of the Witch, until the launch of The Final Shape, Destiny was my “ol’ reliable” game; in other words, I’d come back to it when I just didn’t know what to play.

At the launch of The Final Shape, I played through and beat the legendary campaign. And maybe it was because it was the conclusion to the decade-long saga to that point, but that was when I entered a “retirement” from the game. Don’t get me wrong, I still liked it and occasionally played a dungeon or raid with some friends, but I was out of the loop of the new content to which I was in just months before.

What broke this retirement was The Edge of Fate. That expansion did to the game exactly what I didn’t want. It turned the space adventure into what felt like and partially was an utter grindfest just to get your basic power level up. I just didn’t want to play a game where I’d go through that much just to get to the “fun part,” when during Lightfall and The Final Shape, the opposite was true, that meaning everything felt significant rather than slowly chipping away to get to things being interesting, and I loved the game for it.

That was a common opinion among the Destiny community to my knowledge, which makes what comes next both shocking and expected. Sony and Bungie announced the end of new content for Destiny 2. This was expected. The player base was decreasing, and nothing was helping. How much of this was a self-inflicted wound, with the disliked expansion and subsequent content drought, I’m not 100% sure, although knowing Bungie, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was pretty much the sole reason. What was shocking was how Bungie handled the end: Monument of Triumph, the final update, seemed good.

A partial rollback to the more controversial aspects of “new” D2 as I’ll call it, along with a fair balance of gameplay and stuff to grind for in such a way that every piece of content felt meaningful. This is what I loved the game for, and while it was maybe only true from my perspective in the past, it is almost a definite fact now.

Part of me still had my doubts, but I reinstalled the game to try Destiny 2 one last time. I really wanted to like it! I didn’t want one of my old favorite games to die a painful death as nothing I recognized. And luckily, I got my wish! The game is in a fantastic state. It’s almost a shame, because the game is in such a good state but there’s no updates for it to expand even further. This is not to say that current D2 lacks depth at all! It has plenty! I’ll just always be curious where the game could’ve gone from here, that’s all.

But to wrap up, I’m very happy that Destiny 2 is in a good state again. It’s just nice to see. It’s also nice to see a rise in playerbase with this update, even if it is something of a pyrrhic victory. But with the game as is, it’s a state where I can play casually and still have fun for years to come, and to me, this is all that matters.

That’s what I have for today. I hope you enjoyed reading this post, and I also hope you enjoy it as much as enjoy writing. Have a fantastic rest of your day.

#4 – “Follow You Follow Me”

06/29/2026 / Evan / 0 Comments

Hello again! Today’s post is the blog post equivalent of the setup of a film, where the elements are introduced to be followed up upon later. I have two things to introduce today, and they’re something of fun little experiments for me to mess with over the next few weeks.

Exhibit A – Google Pixel

I mentioned this in Post #2, but I have gained a new interest in older Android devices. This interest was sparked by installing LineageOS on my dad’s tablet from 2016. Part of me regrets not taking it for myself and seeing what I think of it, but I have a new guinea pig device anyway; this device is my dad’s Google Pixel from 2016.

I haven’t done much with it yet, as I’ve just wiped the phone and recalibrated the battery. Before I bother with Lineage, I might as well know if it works decently as-is. But it does remind me of something I like about phones: they were small once! Being able to use the thing one handed is a luxury that my phone (iPhone 15) just can’t offer.

I’ll try to spend a few days using the phone, mostly as an Apple Music player as to not kill my phone battery, and then get a sense of what I should do with it, if anything. If I find it particularly interesting, I’ll follow up on it in a later post.

Exhibit B – Riffmaster

I’ve been getting back into Rock Band 4. It’s a game I’ve always liked quite a bit, especially because of the sheer amount of DLC that the game has. That’s not to say I only like RB4, by the way. I love the whole series! I could go on for a while about Rock Band (and in a few days, I probably will). But Rock Band 4 is important to this one.

I play RB4 on guitar/bass with the Roll Limitless Mini adapter. I cannot recommend the thing enough, it made it possible for me to play the game without having to shell out $200 for a Rock Band 4 guitar or $300 on the Legacy Adapter. At the time I got into RB4, and the series at a whole, new guitars seemed an impossibility and RB4 was the last breath either Guitar Hero or Rock Band got, still getting DLC 7 years on.

Rock Band 4, once I got the adapter and hooked it up to my 360 guitar to play, was an absolute joy. As a more casual player, I have almost no complaints. It felt like the best of the series all in one package, even if I had joined late enough that I missed the ability to export my copies of RB2 and 3. But one concession I had to make was that I only had one adapter and microphone. I was limited to two players on the game, whereas on the 360 I had another guitar for 3 player (on Guitar Hero 5 in particular, I had enough guitars for 4 players with us all using guitar).

But since then, Fortnite Festival released and put a new interest into these kinds of games. This led to the creation of the Riffmaster and CRKD guitar controllers. So, it may be 2 years after release, but I’ve finally decided to try out the Riffmaster. Why the RIffmaster, and why now? I’ve always preferred the frets on a Rock Band controller, and while I like the strum bar less, my 360 Xplorer is in the best shape of any of my 360 guitars, meaning I have a GH controller as my most reliable fallback. Giving the Rock Band-style an upgrade felt right. In addition, there are some reliability concerns with the CRKD guitars and dropping inputs. A little ironic if you ask me, seeing as both the CRKD Les Paul and GH3 Les Paul have had that same issue, it’s almost as if the Les Paul is cursed. In terms of why now, it was partially just because with summer I expect I’ll have friends over, and being able to play the game with the largest amount of my DLC with more people is a good benefit. Once I’ve gotten a good feel for the controller, I’ll probably follow up with a mini-review. That may be fun to write about.

Those two devices are interesting prospects for something to mess with over the summer. I really do hope they work out, and I find good use with them! Optimism is great. But, with that, I’m wrapping up tonight’s post. Thank you for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed. Have a great rest of your day.