Last March I was sick with COVID-19, the most ill I've ever been. Eleven months later, I'm fortunate enough to be fully vaccinated.

Writing has been going well. I finished my first journal ever and started the next. This writing has found its way onto the blog, and Instagram, but hasn't quite translated to the screenplay. It feels daunting still. But I have my outline now, and I'm nearly at 40 pages with more than half the story left to tell. I'm optimistic.

The polar vortex also offered some photographic opportunities once it was done dumping ice and gave way to snow. I enjoyed a truncated work-from-home week with lots of outdoor exploration. My Sigma fp was put to good use.

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This month’s playlist:

Nier: Automata (2017)

I was looking for lighter fare after I completed The Last of Us Part II. Nier: Automata wasn't it. The game starts bombastic and goofy, true to the anime aesthetic. Despite the post-apocalyptic setting, the world is bright and colorful with cheery characters. But it's temporary.

Nier: Automata made a game of subverting my expectations, introducing new or remixing mechanics as soon as I got comfortable and cleverly turning what are considered video game norms on their head. This game was playing with me as much as I was playing with it.

While not the pallet cleanser I expected, Nier: Automata was certainly unique. It really explores the boundaries of video games as a medium and weaves a great (though bleak) sci-fi tale at the same time.

Made in Abyss (2017)

I've been reading the manga and now I'm catching up on the anime. (It's odd how excited we get when something we've read gets turned into something in motion).

Made in Abyss' setting is exactly my cup of tea. It's centered around the eponymous "Abyss," a supernatural chasm in the earth discovered on an island in the middle of the sea. The Abyss is kilometers wide and no one knows how deep because none have returned to tell the tale. This is for two reasons: one, the Abyss plays host to exotic and often eldritch flora and fauna — two, there's a curse.

The curse of the Abyss makes going up much harder than going down. Ascending from only a few hundred meters down will induce dizziness and nausea in the explorer. Return from a few kilometers, auditory and visual hallucinations. Deeper still, serious external hemorrhaging. Eventually, a depth is reached where any ascent will result in death. Descent is all that remains.

A whole city grew up around the mouth of the Abyss because artifacts can be recovered from the depths with near-magical properties. The colorful and optimistic community contrasts sharply with the grim locale it surrounds. And that's what makes Made in Abyss unique, an odd combination of hopefulness and mysteriousness surrounded by the horrific.

Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

I have never read a more incredible movie title.

Judas and the Black Messiah stokes anger and frustration in the face of staggering injustice but leaves you with a sliver of hope. I'm motivated to read more about this obscured history.

Fantastic performances all around.

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This month I also played in the snow and waxed poetic about creative tools.