The PrivatelyAttack Autumn Update
The leaves are dying, the air is crisping, and the change in pressure is causing my right knee to spasm like hell. It’s Fall, yall.
How have things been? Well I hope. The last couple months for me were fairly terrible to say the least. I had a major family emergency hit me square in the face in the middle of august, and just a week or so later I turned 30. I didn’t even have time to feel especially weird about it. Thankfully things have calmed down a bit, but we’re not at full speed just yet. I’m making moves. I’m figuring things out as I go along. I’ll spare you the details.
YOUTUBE UPDATE
I’m done lol
I mean…yeah I’m done for a while at least. I loved making videos, but the time it took to write, record, fetch footage, and edit was just too much for me. I work a lot, and the money I make on Patreon doesn’t cover the $35 a month I need for Adobe Premiere and Photoshop. I had a pretty good run.
I (FINALLY) WROTE ABOUT FINAL FANTASY
Nearly 3 years coming and I wrote about my life with the Final Fantasy franchise. Truth be told most of the essay was written out in June of this year, but due to some difficult circumstances I found it taxing to actually put a bow on the whole thing. Finishing the Final Fantasy essay essentially felt like closing a door on a pretty major part of my life. The next few pieces I write will be about things I more recently enjoyed. In 2024 we’re no longer “consuming content”. We’re enjoying things again. Speaking of enjoyment…
MUSIC
Smiling Broadly’s self titled EP has been on repeat since it came out at the end of August. It’s an energetic grand finale to a time long gone. Hanging out at your friend’s place during a half day at high school, Trips to the countryside to fish in a fucked up riverbed, those late nights at Denny’s contemplating whether or not to order the Hobbit Hole off their special promotional menu…
My great friend em has been sending me music and I gotta say their tastes are just fantastic. Windmill Festival by Aethoro evokes the sea change of time that hits us all at some point. Rather than malign the passage of years this track makes me want to embrace it. I’ve got gray hairs coming in, and songs like these make me feel good about them.
While I haven’t been playing Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (It’s on the list don’t worry) I have been listening to it’s soundtrack. GRRL’s track Operator is a huge standout for me. It’s great walkin’ to work music. On the topic of walking to work, I have screwed my left foot up twice in the last week. My bones have me feeling like this.
FILM
I watched But I’m A Cheerleader for this first time this year! I loved it. These days I get spoon fed nostalgia videos online almost daily. If you’re a 30 year old on tiktok you already know what I’m talking about. The slideshows of 00’s-era school supplies, the slow donkey kong country music, the prompts like:
“POV: it’s 2001 and 9/11 happened a few months ago but right now you have the week off because of Christmas so here’s some pictures of cookies or some shit”
I always think about how bad things were for queer people back then. If I was back in the 90’s or 00’s I’d probably still be in the closet.
LGBT media from the 90’s has a different air to it. It’s punk rock. Nowadays it almost feels like the only queer films to be green-lit are safe ventures for studios or whatever the fuck Bros was. Bodies of work that are completely outside the realm of true lives. What I’m basically saying is that we need to remake Pink Flamingos shot for shot.
Of course I watched Barbie. It was great. I cried no more than four times. No notes.
Remember a couple blurbs ago when I got all cynical and whined about how safe queer media has been getting? That was before I watched Bottoms. Gotta be one of if not straight up the best movie I’ve seen all year. Camp is in full force these days. We are so back.
TV
I binged through all of Atlanta in the span of a week. Every meal was at least two episodes. It’s easily one of the best comedies out there, and I love it so much I’m watching it again with friends. The first season has some growing pains but everything in season two onward is fantastic.
If you have worked in a kitchen- be it one at a fancy sit down, a small cafe, or a McDonald's- then you will find your coworkers or yourself in The Bear. While labeled as a comedy this show is more of a hard swallow at points. Great moments will be found here. The Christmas episode in season 2 is a big standout.
While not technically a TV show but an OVA, I want to talk a bit about Gainax’s Gunbuster. I had the pleasure of watching this and Otaku No Video back to back, and while I enjoyed ONV’s pulpy take on the life and times of Japan’s slacker elite Gunbuster’s raw energy washed over me like a fine mist to the eyes. It’s got hot girls doing hot girl things, like piloting giant robots and crying about dead fathers and boyfriends. It’s got boobs a plenty, but don’t let this show fool you into thinking you strapped in for the usual slop. Gunbuster might just be the ice water bath we’ve all been craving. I feel…rejuvenated after watching the six episode series.
I feel powerful.
GAMES
When I started up System Erasure’s new sokoban game Void Stranger I didn’t know what I was getting into. That being said the spirits of gaming’s past infiltrated my apartment, and slipped a note under my bedroom door.
“This is gonna be the new Undertale. Give it three months.”
Well, here’s me beating everyone to the punch. That being said…
I cannot play this game.
Why? My brain doesn’t work like this! It’s not for me, but it’s probably for you. I bought it mainly to support the developers. It’s $15 on steam. Give it a go.
When SaGa Emerald Beyond was announced during September’s Nintendo Direct people in hushed tones whispered to each other that the game’s battle system is just like SaGa Scarlet Grace. These same whispers also stated that Scarlet Grace’s battle system is one of the best in the genre, so after a few years of sitting on it I finally gave it a whirl. Game’s great. Has that SaGa feel that I’ve been chasing since 2002’s Unlimited SaGa. If you’ve never played a game in the series give Scarlet Grace a shot. Hell, give Unlimited a chance too if you can. You may even say that I’m only buying these games to show Square that yes, an Unlimited SaGa remaster is a good idea.
As of writing I only have a couple hours clocked into From Software’s bespoke mecha action game, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. I just bought it yesterday. I have a good feeling about this one, folks. I have a pretty high tolerance for bad game design but thankfully it’s been smooth sailing so far. Jury’s still out on this one though. I may report back later. I will say now that playing on Steam Deck has been a wild experience. Thumbs on the sticks, index and middle fingers on the paddles on the back, holding the system like a twin stick Sega Saturn controller.
Pair the controls up with some good gyro and you’re golden. Shame the game can’t hit a constant 60FPS on Valve’s portable PC. In the meantime I suppose I will just wait for that gyroscope Xbox controller coming sometime next year. If it has paddles I’m gonna freak out.
What’s Next?
I got a few things cooking right now. Some fun stuff and some more introspective beats. I might take a bit of time off to finish some things up but it won’t be too long. In the meantime clean your bedroom. I’ve been doing that for the last few days and it’s been refreshing to see things look livable for the first time in a while. Depression really spilled itself all over my floor for a bit there. Maybe I should invest in a big trash can…
…maybe we all should.
-PA
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