review

A collection of 23 posts

headphones

Review: Focal Bathy’s Headphones

Introduction The last few years have seen a massive change in the way we consume music. With the advent of the iPod more than 20 years ago it was finally possible to carry lots and lots of music with you. The iTune store made it easy and almost normal for

tv

Love, Death and Robots - Season 3

The current state of Science Fiction on “TV” is pretty… miserable. What a change from a decade ago when there was at least an attempt to make decent SciFi, if at times corny. So it is nice to see that Netflix manages to put out an anthology series that is

books

Books of January 2021

The Cultural Revolution: A People's History, 1962-1976 by Frank Dikötter I did not know a whole lot about the cultural revolution. I was aware of broad strokes, as well as some high level ideas about Mao, this book def. did fill in a lot of the gaps. It

2020

2020 - A (media) review

Well, thank god this is over, even though it’s merely symbolic. Most of the things that dogged us this year will be with us in 2021 as well, at least for a good chunk of it. So without further ado, here is a selection of media recommendation and warnings

culture

March 2020 Culture and Media Review

Books The Image - A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America by Daniel J. Boorstin This book dates back to the 1960s, but so much of it could just have been written today. It sort of shows just how strong the human condition is. Rating: 4/5 Trump and his Generals

2020

February 2020 Culture and Media Review

Books Geostorm series (Book 1 - 3) by Bobby Akart Back in December I read Akart’s “Pandemic” series and though it was okay for the first 1 1/2 books before it became boring and in general was rather cookie cutter. Unfortunately with Geostorm there aren’t really any

movies

January 2020 Culture and Media Review

Books SynCorp Saga - Book 1 - The Lazarus Protocol by David Bruns & Chris Porteau It is an interesting start to (another) “the world ends, but rich people and scientists can save us” narrative. I am cautiously optimistic that it does not become too formulaic but time will tell.

subaru

2020 Outback Limited XT - First Impressions

Introduction The new 2020 Outback is my third Outback and I have to say the best. I ended up with the Outback back in 2012 after deciding to get a car again and found to my dismay that pretty much nobody in Canada is selling Wagons anymore. European manufacturers were

2019

November 2019 Review

Books Rat f**ked: The True Story Behind The Secret Plan To Steal America's Democracy by David Daley This is one of these books that only interests you if you have an interest in American politics. To be fair to the book, I am not really. I am

Audiobooks

Media Review October 2019

Books Safehold - Book 9 - At the Sign of Triumph by David Weber And it is done. In the 9th book David Weber finish the original cycle. The Church is defeated and Safehold is looking forward to a new era….. Maybe? The books pace felt a bit faster than

books

September 2019 Media Review

Books Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue by Ryan Holiday The story of how Gawker was taken down by Hulk Hogan a few years ago developed a new twist when it turned out that Hogan was only able to actually do it because Peter Thiel,

media

August 2019 Media Review

Books Star Wars Thrawn — Book 2 — Alliances by Timothy Zahn The second book in the new Thrawn saga and it changes the tone a bit. It runs in two timelines parallel, one where Thrown and Anakin are going on an adventure, and a second, “present” timeline where Darth Vader and

control

CONTROL (2019)

The Story I am not going to spoil the story here in any detail, rather I want to talk a bit about the setting. The entire game is set in “The Oldest House”, a skyscraper somewhere in New York City where the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) is headquartered. The

culture

July 2019 Review

Books The Edge of Anarchy - The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labour Uprising in America by Jack Kelly I picked this purely by title and it wasn’t quite what I had expected. The book mostly centres around the last, great labour struggle in the US

books

June 2019 Review

Books Level Up Trilogy by Dan Sugralinov This was actually a surprisingly entertaining story. In some ways it is reminiscent of “Ready Player One”. What if you life suddenly turned into a Role Playing Game? Where you could level up stats, see other people’s stats and generally try to

books

[Book] The Fixer Serie Book 1 - 3

Andrew Vaillencourt has created what I would call "Military Sci-Fi" series with "The Fixer". The main character is a former military cyborg named "Roland" who after being "discharchged" from military service finds himself in the seeder parts of Boston where he tires

review

[REVIEW] Vibram Fivefinger’s “Classic”

Introduction A few months ago I reviewed the Vibram Fivefinger “KSO”. This was a “ten year anniversary” model they released back in 2015. Together with the KSO they also released the “Classic”. Weirdly enough both of them are only available in all black. The KSO model quickly became my favourite

vibram

[REVIEW] Vibram Fivefingers KSO

Introduction I have been wearing Fivefingers since late 2014, after most of the other minimalist shoes started disappearing after Vibram lost a lawsuit. The concept of minimalist footwear made sense to me when I first encountered it but I couldn’t really “love” the idea of the goofy looking Fivefingers.

tv

Review for May 2017

Movies Fiction The Lego Batman Movie (2017) I admit, I loved the Lego Movie came out back in 2014. It had something for everybody in what felt like a natural way, not forced by marketing / committee. And to get straight to the point: So does the Batman movie, with one

tea

[Gear Review] Gourmia BT8000 Tea Maker

Introduction The Gourmet BT8000 is one of those “single use” kitchen devices that many of us have at home. In this case, it’s intended to make you two delicious cups of tea (or coffee). Oveview There are only four parts with the device, the machine itself, a metal filter

culture

March 2017

Movies Fiction Fantastic Beasts and where to find them I never really got into the whole “Harry Potter” series. I tried reading the books but didn’t get too far. There wasn’t really a lot that caught my imagination. There was just too much other stuff that appealed to

February

February 2017

TV Fiction The Grand Tour Okay, this started way back in December, but I figured I wait until the series ends before I comment on it. Short recap: There once was a rather popular show that had something to with cars, called TopGear. Almost two years ago though the main

review

January in Review

Television Sherlock — Season 4 The Six Thatchers After more than two years, with the exception of a special last year, Sherlock is finally back and….. it was a bit underwhelming. The big problem in the return of Sherlock is that they now try to humanize him, he has lost his