Menitta's Daily Yapping

So a few months back, I bought a ticket to see my current favorite band, The Midnight, in Washington DC. The plan was to go to work, leave a tad bit early to let Miko out and such, then head to DC that evening. The following day I pictured myself being too tired so I would take a day off with PTO. Unfortunately, none of that happened. I ended up cancelling my PTO and gave my ticket away to someone on Reddit. I chose to do this because my job has gotten so crazy within the past few weeks and it's all hands on deck at the moment, it felt irresponsible on my part to just leave early and take that day off.  Now I'm not going to let this upset me. I take pride in the fact that I'm able to be productive during this time, and it genuinely felt good seeing someone be so ecstatic to get a free ticket to see The Midnight. I made someone's week and the fact that it didn't go to waste made it sting way less. This will not be the only chance I have to see this band. I'll abs...

So if you know me, you know I'm a movie buff. A cinephile  if you will. It's my secondary hobby behind video games. I love watching and thinking about movies. The problem I have, however, comes from how  I approach this hobby.  Ever since I was a kid, I liked to get DVDs of movies, be it renting from blockbuster, getting a copy of my favorite movies for myself to rewatch over and over, you name it. That evolved into my current appreciation towards the 4k Blu ray format. While not the case with everything, a 4k Blu ray is, more often than not, the highest quality way to watch a movie outside of the theater. It completely removes the inconsistencies of streaming while also providing higher color ranges via HDR and DV. Like I said, it's not universal. Lord of the Rings has a different color grading compared to other releases that some don't care for, and every single James Cameron release is thrown into a DNR slop filter. That aside, this is easily my preferred...

Today I finally finished Nioh 3. This was one of my most anticipated games this year and I'm extremely happy to say it delivered. I went in acknowledging the fact that it's a tall order to ask it to be better than my top 6 game of all time with Nioh 2 (top games might be a topic for the future) but I did have the desire for more Nioh. Thankfully I got that.   I am a massive fan of the Team Ninja RPGs. They're not the most cohesion games in terms of stories and such but I cannot get enough of their combat style. Nioh, Wo Long, Rise of the Ronin, all fantastic. Nioh 2 is such a strong refinement of Nioh's combat. The level design is so much better and the variety of things you can do is such a solid step up. When I played 2, I mained primarily Tonfas. The play style they encourage with that weapon type is "It's always my turn" and I love that. The stance switching and abilities that come with it are unlike any action game. It's such a fun gam...

So with the Mario Galaxy movie out today and with...lets call it less than stellar reviews, my beef with how big western animated movies get made, reviewed, and perceived comes crawling back. I want to preface this long winded rant with the fact that I have the utmost respect for those who actually put in the work and crunch for weeks on end in the animation industry. I do not want to take anything away from that. That being said, I think the western blockbuster animation industry is absolute dogshit.  I learned recently that there are institutional limitations on what an animated movie is allowed to be out of Pixar/Disney, DreamWorks, Illumination, and so on. At the highest, most prestigious level, the current students of animation are dissuaded from including any mature topics, swearing, or violence. Someone has an animated version of the rooftop scene in The Departed for an animation school project, well that's too violent.  Parents and kids won't want to see th...