My Media Scrapbook: 2016

On 11/14/2020 at 10:29 PM by KnightDriver

A rather ugly year for me as my work changed management and made me feel totally unimportant. I managed to hang in there that year, but everyone else I had worked with for 8 years left, to be replaced by people I didn't know. Very stressful and not fun. But these bits of media below were fun. Check 'em out.

TV: Planet Earth II:

Another David Attenborough narrated nature show by the inimitable BBC Natural History Unit. It's a feast of nature's best. Makes you wonder why we're ruining it.

Film: Double Feature of: Deadpool/Doctor Strange:

I couldn't choose between these. Deadpool surprised me with how fun it was and I was in heaven seeing my favorite Marvel character, Doctor Strange, on the big screen. I've mostly got disinterested in the giant ensemble cast Marvel films like Avengers and X-Men. Too many characters, unfocused, and too serious. I like a focus on one character with others along for the ride. Comedy too is a big plus with me.

Game: Forza Horison 3:

This was the year I discovered Forza Horizon. Games with Gold gave away the first game and I tried it. I was skeptical because I was never a fan of Forza Motorsport or serious racing sims in general, but five minutes into Forza Horizon and I knew this was for me. I got my friend into it and we played through FH1 and FH2 before getting FH3 sometime near the end of the year. We played the whole series very thoroughly. Burnout is still nowhere to be found, but Forza Horizon has taken its place, and I'm happy. I remember that year the FH3 devs sent a team to Australia to shoot a film of nothing but the weather patterns to be put into the game. I remember thinking that is a job I should be doing.

Music: "My Guitar Gently Weeps" by Regina Spektor from Kubo and the Two Strings film:

This is an interesting cover of the Beatles song using a Japanese Shamisen at the end of the movie. A Shamisen is a three-stringed instrument used in Japanese traditional music. It features heavily in the film too, which I liked a lot.

Books: Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1953:

This was another series including both Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. that I used to read. Mike Mignola's art is delightfully macabre and stylized. I love the stories too, as they are, intertwined with the machinations of underground Nazi scientists still at work on supernatural forces that threaten all of existence. There's something Chthulian about all of it too. The dark evil spirits are big and ancient and evil beyond compare. Thank god we have one of their own fighting them in Hellboy and the team of similarly supernatural/human special forces devoted to protecting humanity and what's good. I think we need these guys and gals right now in the world.

What did you do and see in 2016?

Cary Woodham

11/15/2020 at 07:55 AM

2016 was rough for me, too. Both gaming and personally. I know the Switch was set to come out the next year in 2017, but boy did Nintendo abandon the Wii U awfully early. The only notable games on it that year were an HD remake of Twilight Princess and a Pokemon 3-D fighter made by Namco, creators of Tekken (that's why it was called Pokken Tournament). Nintendo's 'swan song' for the Wii U was supposed to be Star Fox Zero, but that turned out to be one of their worst games ever, in my opinion. It was so bad that I ended up getting a PS4 by the end of the year (well, also mainly because I found it on a Black Friday sale), and my GOTY for that year was World of Final Fantasy. And that wasn't even THAT great of a game!

I had lost my last job late the year before, so I spent the first half of 2016 looking for a new job. And I HATE looking for jobs. That's why I try to stay at a job as long as I can, even if I should move on. And when I finally got a job, it was only part time and I didn't like it. Huge pay cut, too. Sadly, I'm still there, but at least I'm full time now and it is better than it was then. Still goes to show you that not everything is a fairy tale and dreams don't always come true and not everyone gets to do what they want to do in life.

KnightDriver

11/15/2020 at 09:26 PM

Well, good for you, you've got full-time. I'm still part-time and wondering how I'm going to make it in the long term.

11/16/2020 at 09:40 AM

I'm glad I'm full time, but in a couple of years I'm either going to have to get a better paying job or live in an apartment with a bunch of roommates. Either that or move out to the country with relatives, and that's not going to happen. How do people afford houses nowadays?

11/16/2020 at 07:58 PM

I ask myself that all the time.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

11/15/2020 at 10:28 AM

I love that Beatles song. I'll have to check out that version.

I think in 2016 I was trying to make that video game. But after I gave up on that, I decided to stop messing around with other projects and making music, and just focus on writing, and I'm glad I did. Feel like I'm doing what I should be doing now.

I haven't seen the Dr. Strange movie yet. I've missed some marvel movies. The new one sounds really cool though.

11/15/2020 at 09:30 PM

I was thinking about that game you made back then. I keep thinking of game ideas. I almost turned my Xbox into a dev kit this year. Maybe I still will.

The Dr. Strange movie is his origin story again, which disappointed me since I knew it backward and forwards already, but I liked it well enough anyway. They did an animated version around this time, also an origin story. What's with origin stories? I've kind of had enough of them.

SanAndreas

11/15/2020 at 04:28 PM

In 2016, I left a company I had been with for 9 years and a job I had moved halfway across the country to do. I took a job in home health, and really got to know Baltimor, Annapolis, and the DC metro area as a result. My parents got in a bad car wreck in Phoenix.

Started out with Star Wars 7 at the theater on New Years Day with my wife. Game wis, FF15 was my GOTY, but I also enjoyed a remake of Odin Sphere, Tokyo Mirage Sessions for Wii U (I bought the remaster on Switch this year), and The 7th Dragon 3 Code: VFD on 3DS, which I wish would get a Switch port.

11/15/2020 at 09:41 PM

Sorry to hear about your parents. Hope they recovered.

Force Awakens was fine as I remember it, but I have little interest in rewatching it now. I was definitely aware of the Odin Sphere remake. I was also curious about Tokyo Mirage Sessions at the time but didn't have a Wii-U then. I'd like to play that.

PixlBit