Recent Media Consumed

Books

• Ido in Autismland by Ido Kedar. I remember when my sister was first diagnosed, I read through a few accounts of autism in spite of my dislike for non-fiction. I wanted to understand what was happening in my family. I read accounts from parents of autistic children and one book by Temple Grandin—who is autistic herself—but I’ve never come across a book like this before. Ido has autism, is non-verbal, and has an all-consuming desire to communicate. He wrote this book between ages 12 and 16, composing journal entries better-written and more thoughtful than many college essays. I don’t want to say too much about this book because, frankly, I think Ido would like to speak for himself through the pages, but come prepared to have your preconceptions about autism challenged every which way. Sergey has some interesting thoughts about this book.
• The Wandering Inn by Pirateba. This is the second time I’ve read this webnovel through and whooboy. It’s a doozy. At this point, the story is 8 volumes and several million words long (you read that correctly) and looks like it will be going strong for several more volumes. It’s really a wonderful story. Sometimes I get irritated when real world politics break through into this fantasy tale (in ways that don’t feel necessary, sometimes it is called for but sometimes it doesn’t feel called for). However, this story is one of those rare few that no matter how big the cast gets (and it literally encompasses the goings-on of an entire world at a certain point) you care about the characters. Pirateba is a master of making you care. This is one I will be returning to over the years and most likely I will follow it until it’s complete, however many years that takes. It’s one of the most other-worldly stories I’ve read and is very good at getting me disconnected from reality when I need a break.
• In Two Worlds by Ido Kedar. Roughly a decade after releasing his non-fiction book, Ido penned a novel. There are many themes in the novel that feel plucked straight from Ido In Autismland, however Ido makes it clear in his intro that the protagonist "Anthony" is not him, and that while Anthony has experiences that overlap his own, Anthony is his own person with different issues and familial interactions. This book was written differently than most novels I'm comfortable and familiar with, so I had difficulty sinking into the skin of the protagonist completely. Some parts felt a little bit preachy as well. However, this is by no means a badly written story, and it made me think more about some aspects of what Ido has been trying to communicate than his non-fiction book was able to present.

Movies

• Jurassic World: Dominion. So, I’ve been watching this since the reboot started, and so far, Jurassic World (the first one) has the best story. From there, the story gets progressively stupider and the dinos get progressively ridiculawesome. This movie is no different. The dino aspect is fun, and it even looks like they finally listened and incorporated way more practical effects on the dinos and less pure-CG. On the flip side, they had about five morals they were busy cramming down our throats. Nothing raises my blood pressure faster than Hollywood moralizing at me. Go for the dinos and chuck the rest.
• Free Guy. There should be an academy award category for the walk-in-thinking-it’s-stupid-walk-out-stunned-by-how-good-it-was type movies. The Lego Movie and Kung-Fu Panda come immediately to mind. Let’s add to that Free Guy, which somehow manages to pull off not only an action flick, a video game movie, and a love story, but does it well. This is a fun and surprisingly adorable and heartwarming movie that still packs plenty of explosions and is a thoroughly enjoyable watch.
• Beast. I skimmed through spoilers on this one before I went, just to make sure there wasn’t a supernatural bent. I can do some horror/thriller, but only if it doesn’t fall into certain categories. This one was clear for me to attend, and while some scenes were gruesome or I needed to look away from time to time, it was an enjoyable film. In a lot of ways, it was like a sane version of Jurassic Park, and by sane I mean peoples' motivations and reactions made sense and there weren’t a crapton of holes in the story, so the writer in me was pretty well satisfied by this flick too. And best of all, moralizing was either subtle or kept to a minimum.

Shows

• Star Trek Next Generation (including First Contact movie). I keep trying to figure out what to say about this show. I enjoyed it a lot. Sergey steered me away from most of the episodes he deemed “ridiculous” or “bad” which was most of seasons 1 & 2, but this is such a good show. Very episodic, but highly enjoyable. My favorite character was Data, followed closely by Worf.

Video Games

• Omori. This is a rough game to play. It blends an adorably cute sprite game with horror elements. In one breath it brilliantly depicts the mundanity of minimum wage jobs and in the next it guides you through actual game combat in the form of subduing a panic attack through moves like “Calm down” and “Focus.” You uncover a genuinely disturbing truth towards the end and you have to decide what to do with this truth. What you do determines your fate and the fate of at least one person close to you. If issues of suicide, depression, and anxiety disturb you, play this with extreme caution or avoid it completely. But it is a good. Good. Story.
• Kirby, The Forgotten Lands. It’s fun. It’s bouncy. It’s adorable. Gameplay is fairly simple, too. This is definitely a top tier therapy type game, excellent to play when you’re not feeling at your best.