Video Games Completed – Wrapping up 2015

Video Games Completed

Video games complete is another number I’ve been tracking for quite some time, all the way back to 2010. The average so far has been 55 games per year. Despite that I seem to always have a never ending pile of unplayed, and unbeaten video games to play. Despite the tumultuous events of the year I’m only slightly down from my average with 47 games completed in 2015.

PC games got the lion’s share of attention in 2015 totaling 26 of the 47 completed. Of those 26 games Dark Souls consumed the majority of the time I spent playing PC games. After attempting the game multiple times both on the Xbox 360 and PC it finally clicked. I know when it came out I had nothing but bad things to say about Dark Souls and some of my criticisms then still hold true. The manual is woefully inadequate for complexities found in the game and the messages left by other players and wiki sites are a poor substitute for proper documentation. If I was to do a game of the year for 2015 it would be Dark Souls, I haven’t spent that much time with a video game since I was in high school…

With that here is the list of video games completed in 2015: Continue reading “Video Games Completed – Wrapping up 2015”

Television Watched – Wrapping up 2015

television watched
Image by Gawker

I watched a lot of television this year. A lot more than I’d suspect I watch if I wasn’t keeping track of this. If you wonder where all my free time went this year looking over this post should give you a good idea. Too much time spent on the couch and not enough working on projects, working out, writing, or being with friends. I’m not giving up television; that’d be insane seeing as some of the best tv ever is being made right now but, I am going to be slowing down my consumption rate or turning this into a social activity that can be down with friends.

What stands out in 2015? Supernatural is better than it has been in a long time. I know its a dumb monster hunt show but it’s a FUN dumb monster hunt and after 10 seasons I still want to know what happens to Dean and Sam Winchester. Jessica Jones tore me apart. After the Daredevil I thought I was ready for a bleaker take on Marvel’s universe but I wasn’t expecting Jessica Jones delivered. Imperfect, damaged people trying to make their way, together, in an imperfect, damaged world. Portlandia is as quirky, surreal, and delightful as it has always been Carrie Brownstein is amazing and Fred Armisen is right behind her.

With that here is the list of television shows I watched in 2015: Continue reading “Television Watched – Wrapping up 2015”

Movies Watched – Wrapping up 2015

Movies watched

2014 was the first year I started tracing all the movies I watched and television shows I had seen. This will be my first year blogging about it. I almost doubled my movie viewing last year. This might have something to do with why my book reading was down (to be honest that’s probably the fault of television shows. You’ll see in the next post…)

In preparation for the new Star Wars movie I also rewatched the first six. Instead of doing this as a solitary pursuit though, I invited friends over to view the films with me every Sunday leading up to the release of Force Awakens. This turned out to be a great idea and it seems everyone had a lot of fun at these viewings. I might make this a regular event at my house.

Out of this list the movies that stand out the most are The Babadook, Inside Out, and the Force Awakens all for entirely different reasons. The first is a fantastic commentary on being a parent presented as a smart horror film, the second is a beautiful reminder of the wonder of childhood and how much of that is lost as we age, and the last was just a really fun, space romp with characters I care about.

With that here is the list of movies I watched in 2015: Continue reading “Movies Watched – Wrapping up 2015”

What I Read in 2014

my library is mostly an iPad at this point...
Not a picture from my library

I kept track, once again, of all the books I read in 2014. It came to a grand total of 48 this year. That’s six more than I read in 2013 and one more than I read in 2012. 2010 is still my best year in reading (69 books) since I started tracking this. My goal for 2015 is to break into the fifties this year.

January (3)
Sit Down and Shut up by Brad Warner
Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
Coriolanus by William Shakespeare

February (1)
This Gaming Life by Jim Rossignol

March (3)
What the Koran Really Says by Ibn Warraq
Note from Underground Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Origins of the Koran by Ibn Warraq

April (3)
Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett
Lumberjanes #1 by Noelle Stevenson and Grace Ellis
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

May (4)
King Lear by William Shakespeare
The Simon & Kirby Library: Horror! by Jack Kirby
A Darkling Sea by James Cambias
X-Men The Dark Phoenix Saga by Claremont & Byrne

June (5)
Storm Front by Jim Butcher
Cities without Suburbs: a 2010 Perspective by David Rusk
Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
Werewolves of Montpellier by Jason
Normandy: A Graphic History of D-Day, The Allied Invasion of Hitler’s Fortress Europe by Wayne Vansant

July (4)
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
Summer Knight by Jim Butcher
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Finder: Talisman by Carla Speed McNeil

August (4)
Abraham Lincoln and Joseph Smith by Ron L. Anderson
Cryptozoologicon, Volume 1 by Darren Naish
Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
The Christ Myth Theory and its Problems by Robert M. Price

September (6)
Abominable Science by Daniel Loxton
Death Masks by Jim Butcher
Blood Rites by Jim Butcher
Anatomy of a Game: Super Mario Bros. by Jeremy Parish
The Diamond Throne by David Eddings
The Ruby Knight by David Eddings

October (5)
The Sapphire Rose by David Eddings
Cthulhu in World Mythology by Jason Colavito
ZZT by Anna Anthropy
Chrono Trigger by Michael P. Williams
Terror by Dan Simmons

November (5)
The Sleep of Reason edited by Spike
Tomboy by Liz Prince
In the Dust of this Planet by Eugene Thacker
Flame and Smoke edited by Andy Keener
Light in the Dark edited by Andy keener

December (5)
Before the Storm by Rick Perlstein
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
Doubting Jesus’ Resurrection by Kris D. Komarnitsky
Piranha Frenzy by Colin Campbell
To Be or Not To Be by Ryan North and William Shakespeare

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