Another year, another notch on the age belt.

It’s been trying, and now that we’re at the end of it I’d like to recap items and events that caught the interest of this sci fi fantasy geek.

This Damn Pandemic

When old people say save money for a rainy day, this is truly what they meant. Except it has been a rainy year. I am fortunate not to be affected in my career, but I feel for those who have not just lost jobs, but lost loved ones.

As of this post my country of Trinidad and Tobago is experiencing another wave of infections, and it will only get worse as restrictions continue to ease – schools are opening, restaurants are serving, curfews are lifting, parties are zessing.

And a new type of discrimination is looming.

We all know humanity’s terrible age-old conflicts of whites vs blacks, Africans vs Indians, Democrats vs Republicans, PNM vs UNC, plants vs zombies. Now it seems we can add vaccinated vs unvaccinated.

It’s a very real scenario. Recently I saw a newscast announce that Austria has placed only the unvaccinated on lockdown. I find this alarming, and as a sci fi fantasy writer can imagine a dystopian world with an evolved covid19 that results in segregation of unvaccinated to the point of imprisonment, forcing unfair laws, and even barricading in certain sectors. Or maybe the opposite where domes are erected as “Safe Zones” that eventually envelope entire cities. Such a move will ultimately result in uprisings, rebellions, and war. I pray things don’t get to that, and I’m ready for this virus to be just another chapter in history.

The clutches of Covid have snaked its way into unexpected places – shipping, hardware, and microchips. Unbelievably, the price of computer parts has skyrocketed.

On a non-virus note, I’m totally disappointed that neither Sony nor Microsoft can keep up with the demand for their next gen game consoles. Finding an affordable PS5 or Xbox X is challenging as making the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.

Then Microsoft in its desperation to monopolize the gaming market went and bought a company called Bethesda for a whopping $7.5 billion USD. This was a big deal for me as I’m a long time Bethesda fan because of games like the Elder Scrolls and Fallout. They are the best when it comes to open world games and engrossing worlds.

What’s a PS fan to do? Looks like loyalties are about to change.

Starbound

I’ve been so busy writing my novel that I didn’t do any reading, and can’t say anything on new sci fi fantasy books, but movies and games have always been there to help me relax.

My PS4 is just collecting dust now, but I finally checked out the computer gaming service Steam, and my first purchase was an awesome game called Starbound. With the ability to travel the entire universe, beam down to different planets, scan new life forms, hire new crewmen for my starship, and destroy/rebuild anything in beautiful 2D pixelart goodness, this game has got me watching Star Trek more than ever.

I’m glad that movies are happening again. The MCU finally entered into television series thanks to Disney+, and I welcome this because tv superheroes was just flooded with home-made costumes and stories that went on and on about trivia that would only interest teenage drama queens **cough, Smallville, cough** excuse me. Wandavision, and Falcon and the Winter soldier were good, and I found Loki to be totally entertaining. What If seemed a bit odd, but I loved the episodes with Dr. Strange losing his heart, and Killmonger saving Tony Stark. And of course there were the films Black Widow, Eternals, and Shang-Chi.

Then we had the animation Invincible. I have to say I had my doubts but by the end of episode one I was totally hooked. Other good times include Walking Dead, Squid Games, Mortal Kombat, Godzilla vs Kong, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Injustice and so on.

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So those were my geeky highlights this year. Feel free to share yours.

I’m looking forward to doing more reading next year, hoping to finally publish my book, maybe play some great games, and catch up on new movies. Have a merry Christmas and I’ll let you know more details for 2022 in my next post.