New bike, childhood movies, and origami for once!

This week was definitely characterized by a return to a lot of nostalgic things. No complaining, you will see what I mean as you read :P

• 🤱 It was Mother’s Day in México! I feel bad because I didn’t do breakfast for my mom. But the rest of the day was good nonetheless. It was on Sunday so my church had a special events to honour all the mothers. Kids, teens and youth all participated, be it in choir, and there was also a play! Of course everyone helped prepare lunch and help in any way so the moms could just relax and chats. My siblings called later and we had our own fun too talking with mom.

• 🚲 I have a new bike, used from a local bike repair shop. There were many options but I went for a hybrid (a Fuji Traverse 1.6 for those curious), fit for city but with slightly wider wheels that can handle light dirt and gravel paths. I got it after work, stepping off the bus transport much earlier than usual since the shop was halfway through. They let me do a test ride around the block and it was love at first sight. Since I had no car I had to ride all the way home from there! It was 7 kilometer journey and I actually pulled it off very easily. Since then I’ve just been having fun riding on my patio, but I am yet to bike through the city again. I am considering commuting to work with it, but I’ll have to write down some thoughts about all this later.

• 🚗 My parents went on a trip last weekend and returned right after I had purchased the bike, I didn’t want to not tell them about it so I brought it up and they were a bit confused as to where a bike would fit in my daily life. Again, I’ll write about that later, the point is they didn’t get mad lol.

• 📷 I returned to do an actual origami for no particular reason, for the first time in a while. I folded a “Dollar Camera”—a camera model that can be made with a dollar bill—by Won Park. The model is incredibly simple and very fun to do, I had it memorized for years and as soon as I started following the diagram it all rushed back to me. I should upload a pic to the website soon.

• 🛡️ I got an unexpected gift from Limited Run Games/Falcom. Since the physical release of Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter was delayed when I preordered it. They gave a pin to every buyer! I actually wasn’t expecting something so cool to show up.

Watching

As I said, this was a week full of nostalgia, and as such, I decided to revisit three films that were a part of my childhood and even teenage years. I am a huge fan of this franchise and I will probably write a long blogpost about it because Max Steel is the best action figure ever, and one of my favorite heroes of all time.

• Max Steel: Endangered Species - The first animated film of the franchise, featuring worse graphics than early PS2 cutscenes, a soundtrack by Brian Carston that goes way too hard for a movie made to sell toys, a hero that needs to inject himself with some drug to survive, and some incredible scenes for fans of the series, the two main villains of the TV show, Biocon and Psycho, team up to destroy the world, there’s a chase down an ice peak at night, and an epic final fight on top of Mayan ruins. I have to be honest, even though the graphics are dated, the animation quality, mostly done with motion capture, is really amazing, especially that fight choreography with that epic music, the voice acting of the Latino dub is awesome as well!

• Max Steel: Forces of Nature - The previous movie teased Max Steel’s upcoming villain, and this guy is genuinely terrifying. Elementor, a clone of Biocon, has the ability to control the Elements: Water, Earth, Wind, Fire and Metal—this guy showed up before Avatar The Last Airbender, by the way. And wants to terraform the world to his will. Max Steel must do everything he can to stop him from acquiring full strength, but is bested at every moment. There are revelations, there is betrayal, and there’s an epic moment surfing the eye of a tornado.

• Max Steel: Countdown - This was the last movie I watched, but the first I ever saw as a child. Elementor is back, and this time he has divided itself into five, one for each element! As they attach to the planet’s core, the terraformation is already in progress, and Earth won’t be able to sustain life in a matter of hours. Max Steel will challenge them one more time, will he be able to defeat them? Yes, with a bicycle kick of all things!

I have so much more to say about these films, but I’ll just write a separate post to be honest. Absolute childhood nostalgia.

Gaming

• 🥐 CrossCode - Finally had time to return to this gem of a game, I have been playing the last of three dungeons in the current chapter I’m playing. I’ve managed to get the key to the boss room now, after some very very complicated looking puzzles. I had a lot of fun! The block puzzles and pinball style mechanics continue to amuse me to no end here

• 👾 UFO 50 - I “returned” Barbuta, unable to beat it in time. I think it’s a great game with some neat elements going for it, but I am just too used to the easy life of modern titles! Anyway, now I am playing Bug Hunter, it’s a title that reminds me of a very bare-bones Into The Breach, killing bugs in a grid using a limited set of actions. I can get more actions by getting energy, but killing enemies doesn’t give energy, so I have to choose the path and order of things, be smart about it. It’s challenging! But I’ll keep trying.

• 🐉 Monster Hunter Freedom Unite - For the same childhood nostalgia I felt inclined to go for a Tigrex hunt on my PSP! I just chose the village quest and went with my G rank gear because I just wanted to have some easy fun avoiding attacks without having to get carted due to a simple mistake. In any case this game remains extremely fun!

• 🏝️ Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream - I’ve been leveling up Miis and having some fun keeping them in check. Not a lot of updates but I’ve seen some new scenes and funny moments showing up, as well as the news everyday which are always pretty entertaining.

Reading

• Tiamat’s Wrath - I finally finished… the prologue. And a bit of the first chapter!

• Heavenly Delusion - Up to chapter 53. The protagonists met some of the other protagonists at once, gave closure to some mysteries, and are about to face a giant monster heading to a city of survivors getting by.
• Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie - Up to chapter 108.
• Spy x Family - Up to chapter 134.
• Blue Lock - Up to chapter 345.

Around the Web

Blogposts

• Writing a blog post without a screen - I’ve written a blogposts by hand in cursive but this is kinda crazy.

• We got a new bike! - I was not the only one purchasing a bike! This one is pretty cool with lots of space to carry things (and kids!)

• Spicing Up My Website - Wooo, always nice when a friend adds some to his blog. Pixel bear yay!

• Another Triumph For Blogging - Wouter met a fellow blogger IRL, that is super cool.

YouTube

• Casually Explained: Cycling - A short animation comedy about cycling and commuting and the like, kinda funny but with some edgy humor
• I Tried Mountain Bike Commuting - How Does it Compare to a Road Bike? - This was actually a very relaxing video to watch, just a POV of a commute! It has some cuts but it’s pretty nice. Japan is cool.
• Are you bike commuting wrong? Fitness vs transportation explained - Neat tips to take. I am worried about commuting to work and especially sweat on my back but maybe it’s not so bad.
• Every Reason to Hate Cars - This is a long one, Not Just Bikes is a great channel that I’ve shared videos of before.
• What a Bicycle Shop in Japan is Like - A fun tour on a bike shop in Japan, I love the variety and the types there are over there. Very interesting.
• I Built a Bike Out Of Home Depot Supplies - Now this was such a silly project, and yet it worked. It’s wild how things worked out in the end.

This is day 64 of #100DaysToOffload