Introduction “Just for the Summer” by Abby Jimenez is a heartwarming contemporary romance novel that explores themes of love, personal growth, and the complexity of human relationships. Set against the backdrop of a picturesque lakeside town, the story follows the journey of two individuals, April and Noah, who find themselves navigating unexpected love and personal challenges over the course of a summer. Through witty dialogue, relatable characters, and emotional depth, Jimenez crafts a narrative that is both entertaining and poignant. Chapter 1: A New Beginning April has just ended a long-term relationship and decides to spend the summer in a…
Exploring the Magic and Mystery of ‘Fourth Wing’ by Rebecca Yarros
Introduction “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros is a captivating fantasy novel set in a world where dragon riders are the elite warriors who protect the realm. The story follows Violet Sorrengail, a young woman who is thrust into the rigorous training and dangerous life of a dragon rider. Violet must navigate a brutal military academy, form alliances, and uncover hidden truths while surviving deadly trials and fierce competition. The novel is filled with action, romance, and intricate world-building that grips readers from start to finish. Chapter Summaries Chapter 1: Violet Sorrengail is introduced as the daughter of a renowned general.…
The Power of Tiny Habits: Analyzing ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear for Personal Growth
Intro “Atomic Habits” by James Clear is a transformative guide on how small changes in habits can lead to remarkable results in personal and professional life. Clear emphasizes that habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. This book provides a comprehensive framework for understanding how habits work and how to develop and sustain good ones while breaking bad ones. Through scientific research, personal anecdotes, and practical advice, Clear illustrates that tiny changes in behavior can accumulate and lead to significant improvement over time. Summary of Each Chapter Chapter 1: The Surprising Power of Atomic Habits Clear begins by highlighting the…
Starfield – A Few Months In
Looking back, it was impossible for Starfield to live up to the hype. Twenty years in the Making! A Thousand Worlds to Explore! Massive Cities! Build your own Outposts! Build your own SHIPS! And it looked amazing. Screen shots of ringed planets filling the sky, space battles in asteroid fields, and characters that appeared to have-character. Turns out you can’t actually land on all the planets, such as gas giants and the like. The ones you can land on are, well, pretty empty. And the Points of Interest are procedurally generated. Meaning you can find the same Abandoned Listening Post…
Still Just A Geek by Wil Wheaton
An Annotated Memoir “Never met your heroes.” Is a common refrain from fans who regularly attend Conventions. The actors who play your favorite characters, are not, in fact, your favorite characters. Most of them aren’t even fans of the shows they star in. If you ask them about the character they played, the odds are good that they’ll talk about the sets, the props, and a bunch of stuff that is interesting to them, but not so much to you. They’ll also bitch and moan about all the stuff you love. And they will definitely have a William Fucking Shatner…
Starfield First Impressions of Gameplay Reveal
Starfield-Fallout 4 in Space Since this is as Bethesda Game, well, it looks a lot like Fallout 4. It’s a lot prettier. The artwork looks amazing. I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about the frame rates, but I’ve never been that kind of geek. My games either work or they crash, frame rates aren’t that important to me. In Fallout 4 the first companion you met is Codsworth, a very friendly and overly cute fellow with brilliant voice acting that gives him a lot personality. In the new footage from Starfield we appear to have a robot companion who…
Fallout 4:Things I Love and Things I Hate
Just a few opening thoughts There are three YouTubers I found who spent a lot of time on Fallout. Oxhorn is kind of the unofficial Fallout 4 historian who dives deep into all the lore and everything you are likely to encounter in the game. Gopher Gaming has a great Let’s Play series that covers the base game and the many DLCs that followed it. There are hundreds of hours of videos of these two playing Fallout 4, talking about Fallout 4, and complaining about Fallout 4. All these videos are, of course, several years old and both have moved…
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
If you like really long books… Middlegame took a few chapters for me to get into. I listened to the audio-book and Amber Benson went a little over the top a few times for me. She tried a little too hard to give the bad guys really bad voices and she laid the Boston accent of one of the heroes on a little thick. Still, she did a pretty good job and I really enjoyed this fantasy book set in the real -such as it is- world. We start off with an Alchemist creating some kind of super golem to…
Outer Range-Season 1
Outer Range is an odd bit of business to be sure. It starts off like a number of other modern Westerns, a couple of rich ranchers hate each other, their kids are kind of idiots, the countryside is beautiful but hides all kinds of secrets. But we pretty quickly discover that this isn’t Dallas or Yellowstone, it’s more like LOST or Westworld with just a touch of the Twilight Zone tossed in. There’s an odd mixture of the mundane and the extraordinary. Most of the time we’re shown people doing normal real world stuff. Lawyers and land disputes. A rodeo…
Fallout 4-Seven Years Behind Everyone Else
I remember the Wanderer commercial. That was cool, but not cool enough for me to shell out the money for a machine powerful enough to run Fallout 4. So I forgot about it. Until a few months ago when it showed up on Xbox Game Pass. I downloaded it and played several hours a day until I had gathered all the companions, become General of the Minutemen, destroyed The Institute, and learned to hate Settlers. I used Fast Travel, played on Normal, and didn’t realize there was a whole world of players that considered fast travel cheating, and playing on…