Weightlifting At 40; Mullet MadJack; The Value of Game Pass in 2025; Bone Lake

 

Here's a photo of my 40 year old carcass, like some sort of dweeb.

After losing weight last year, I've mostly kept it off. As of this morning, I weigh in at 188.9 lbs, which has been my consistent poundage for the summer. My weightlifting program is a split between powerlifting and bodybuilding, and although my strength numbers have never recovered, I feel as though I'm still doing pretty well, all things considered. Recently, I've deadlifted 410 lbs, bench pressed 220 for 5, and squatted 275 for 5 reps. None of these are particularly impressive lifts and they're far away from my best performances, but let's be honest; at this point, it's about staying in shape while being as strong as you can without hurting yourself. The demands of my job and the pressures of parenthood keep optimal fitness a distance goal. Had I a sedentary job, I could probably lift a little harder. But that's not the situation, and I'm content with my current condition. 

Mullet MadJack is an rogue-like speedrunning first person shooter that I played on Game Pass. It has a very tongue in cheek story about our eponymous protagonist trying to rescue a pop-star princess from the clutches of a Robobillionaire, who has absconded with her in order to prove that God isn't real. As Mullet MadJack, you have ten seconds to kill a robot; otherwise, you'll flatline, because Jack has himself hooked up to a cellphone stream, and the needs of the dopomine-crazed masses require constant stimulation and violence. Is developer Hammer 95 trying to say something about our current internet addiction? Maybe, but the shooting is so good that's it's difficult to concentrate on any message. I picked the starting pistol and upgraded it to level three where I had infinite ammo and didn't have to reload anymore. Time is life, and it's an excellent adrenaline rush to dash from enemy to enemy while the time ticks down. Mullet MadJack scratches the same inch that Neon White did, and I really dig it.

What I really don't dig is that Microsoft just increased the price of Game Pass Ultimate to 30 dollars a month. At the previous price of 20 bucks, Game Pass was a dubious value. For example, I've subscribed for one month, and I just renewed for October at 20 (The price increase doesn't kick in for subscribers till November). I've played over 30 hours of Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, yet I'm seemingly only about halfway through the game. Other than the 16 or 17 hours I've spent with Mullet MadJack, I've only dabbled in Carrion and Hollow Knight: Silksong. My son has played a few games but nothing to completion. So I've essentially paid 40 bucks for Mullet MadJack and half of Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones has been on sale for 55 bucks on Steam several times recently, and seeing how it looks like it might take me two months or more to complete it, how does Game Pass make sense when I could just buy the title on Steam and not have to worry about finishing it before being charged another Andrew Jackson? At 30 bucks, a triple A single player game will have to be finished in a month for any sort of value to be extracted. I'm interested in playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which is currently only on the Ultimate tier of Game Pass. It's been on sale for 41 dollars on Steam recently. If it takes over a month to complete, then I've paid 60 dollars for a 41 dollar game! Sure, I might have time to try other games, but where's the value? It seems like Microsoft has finally realized Game Pass is too expensive, and since they put all their cards in that basket, they're going to gradually kill the service that has kept X Box alive this feeble generation. Oh well. As a PC gamer, I appreciated the value of Game Pass, and my son's X Box Series S is a good entry console, but it seems as though this is the deathblow to the brand. I'm sure console gamers will be excited to pay 700 bucks or more for the Playstation 6 in a couple of years.

Bone Lake (not Boner Lake) is a decent B horror movie. It takes the overbooked Air BnB concept and plays with it a bit. The main characters wear their idiot caps for just long enough, and the violence is suitably gruesome. I liked the cast as well, although I mistook Maddie Hasson for Florence Pugh. It's not the most original flick, but it's a good hour and thirty minutes at the theater. 

   

New Music: The Last Battle

 

A piano-driven instrumental ballad, The Last Battle is built around a Cmajor7 to C-E-F#, which I guess is a C augmented fourth? The progression is closed by an Am6, which is one of my favorite chords, before transitioning to an Em7 to D6 to C-E-F# for the second part of the song. The fast action of Mullet Madjack is a nice contrast to the slow-paced song, but I feel like it might almost be an anime cliche to have a slow ballad over an action sequence. I dunno, I don't watch much anime. 

New Music: Hard To Say

 

A grungy alt-rocker married to Doom: Dark Ages. Used the telecaster on this one. It's my go-to hard rock riff maker. 

The Esteemed Critic Reviews Superman (2025)

 

James Gunn's Superman is a mostly successful attempt to revitalize the iconic character and bring his hopeful optimism and goodness to a new generation. It's no secret that the once omnipresent superhero genre is now struggling--other than the atrocious Deadpool and Woverine, nothing is coming close to Avengers: Engame or the last Spider-man in box office numbers--and we're just talking about Marvel movies, not DC. Gunn is known mostly for the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, which are humorous, competent fair. Superman has a slavish attention to detail that previous entries have lacked--Jimmy Olsen, Kryto the superdog, and Cat Grant make appearances) and the audience immediately understands that Gunn comprehends the character and understands his appeal, unlike, say, Zack Snyder. David Corenswet wears the cape well, dispelling my fears from the trailer that he appeared a little too boyish. Rachel Brosnahan is a competent, if a little remote, Louis Lane, and Nicholas Hoult is an appropriately vicious Lex Luthor. My main problem with the film is how poorly it fits into the time it was made. There are allusions to events in the real world, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the manipulation of sentiment through social media, but it all feels... wrong. Seeing a little boy raise a homemade Superman flag while an invading army looms over him pulls me out of this universe and makes me think about how America has let Israel run amok in annihilating Palestinians or how the Trump administration has extorted Ukraine. Similarly, Lex Luthor is successful in riling up the people against Superman with one stolen video, the veracity of which everyone just accepts as true, because the experts told them so. That the video is true isn't the point--people believe what they want to believe, evidence be damned--and the optimism that the masses would put their faith back in a legitimate hero and support Luthor getting what he deserves is just so goddamn naive that I have a really hard time stomaching it in 2025. I'm not arguing that Gunn shouldn't have made a hopeful, optimistic Superman movie. It's just that such a film doesn't play well in our current era, and the hero's essence--Truth, Justice, and the American Way--is so incompatible with Trumpism that I'm having a really hard time seeing it through any other lens than that of the cynical, post-hope liberal doomer. That's on me, not Gunn. Maybe something will happen that will restore my faith in American idealism. But right now I can't reconcile a world, even a fictional one, in which Superman can exist. 

New Music: Black Friday

 

What does the refrain Black Friday mean? I dunno. It just came to me as I was making up the lyrics. The blues stomp came first. In honor of Hades 2 releasing today, here is a little tune that meshing well with it, in my humble opinion. 

Pointless Poetry Episode Three

 

I feel like I wasn't enunciating enough while reading these poems and stories, right? It's hard not to be a mumble-mouth when you're wearing a luchador mask. 

New Music: I Will Not Survive

 

I Will Not Survive follows the Circle of 4ths, starting on a Bm9 chord, but ending on a F#7 (you gotta end the circle somehow!). The snake-like guitar arpeggios that open the song remind me of Johnny Marr's playing, which was an influence, although it's hard to pen down his exact sound. The lyrics perhaps refer to a jilted lover or even a refugee torn from his or her nation by oppressive forces. I won't pretend to know what that feels like.

Bad Poetry: On The Death of a Nazi

 

You left behind

Two little children

And a beautiful wife

Had they been shot

By an assassin

It would have been "worth the cost"

In your words

So that we can have the right

To bear arms against each other.

When you said that

You weren't thinking of your family

Or yourself.

The people who died would be other people

Like the children killed in Colorado

The same day as you.

You couldn't stand empathy

As you said "A made up, New Age term"

And so I will not give it to you

As you would have preferred.

The New York Yankees gave you a moment 

Of silence

And so did Speaker Johnson

Because you were one of them

A spewer of hatred

Bigotry

And lies.

A rich white man was killed

And the children are forgotten.

Let us look in derision

At the life you led

And mourn the lives that were lost

To guns and demagoguery.

Let us mourn those lives

But not yours.

It is what you would have wanted.

Worth the cost, I'm sure

To someone other than you.  

Checking in with the Average Trump Supporting Family

We're deep into 2025, and it's been quite the shit-show, with Donald Trump dismantling the government, flagrantly breaking the law, and pushing the economy toward a recession, all while increasing his authoritarian agenda and managing an approval rating just a couple points underwater. What does the average Trump supporting family think? We're checking in with the Whites to get a pulse on how they feel the President is doing.

Pointless Venture: Howdy, Mr. White. What do you do for a living?

Mr. White: I own a window replacement business. As you can see, I'm doing pretty well.

Pointless Venture: That's terrific! I'm happy for you. What do you think of President Trump's performance so far?

Mr. White: The tariffs are hurting my business. My storm windows are made outside the United State, so I'm paying almost fifty percent more to import them. There isn't a domestic manufacturer that makes storm windows at an affordable price, so I'm left with no alternative. I've had to raise prices. Now I'm not getting the business that I used to.

Pointless Venture: So you're not happy with the tariffs? President Trump campaigned on them.

Mr. White: Yeah, but I didn't expect them to affect me directly. I thought the other countries were going to pay them, not us.

Pointless Venture: So you didn't know what a tariff is.

Mr. White: No, of course not! I'm not sure if the President does either, though.

Pointless Venture: So do you regret your vote for President Trump?

Mr. White: Hell no. He's cleaning out the cities of illegals. Hopefully he'll target the goddamn commies next.

Pointless Venture: President Trump's use of ICE to illegally deport US residents doesn't give you pause?

Mr. White: No. We need to get rid of the liberals and do-nothings.

Pointless Venture: You support the formation of a secret police force beholden to the President?

Mr. White: Now when did I say that? You're putting goddamn words in my mouth. To put it quite simply, I'm prepared to take an economic hit as long as the people I don't like get what they fucking deserve.

Pointless Venture: I see. The fascism is the point for you?

Mr. White: Yeah, I guess. Fascism is one of those fucking words you guys like to throw around like a sledgehammer. Well guess what. We're the ones swinging the hammer.

Pointless Venture: All right, thank you for your time, Mr. White. Let's move on to Mrs. White. Please introduce yourself.

Mrs. White: I'm a homemaker and proud mother of two beautiful children.

Pointless Venture: That's great. What sort of job do you think the President is doing?

Mrs. White: They're keeping the bad history out of schools, which is good. I also support RFK's efforts to remove colored food dyes, although I'm a little worried about being able to get the COVID vaccine.

Pointless Venture: You believe in COVID?

Mrs. White: Well, I didn't, but then Robert's dad got very sick after we visited him during the pandemic, and he almost died, and I've always felt as though we were responsible, because Timmy probably had COVID, he couldn't smell anything. Since then, I've always felt like we should get it when we get into cold season, but Robert doesn't feel that way.

Pointless Venture: Are you alarmed at the Trump administration's cuts to public health?

Mrs. White: I'm more alarmed at the cuts to the Department of Education. Jill is about to go to college, and her councilor told us that she might not be able to get any financial aid if they eliminate it.

Pointless Venture: What about your grocery bill? Has it gotten any cheaper?

Mrs. White: No, actually I'm spending almost fifty to seventy dollars more a week on groceries. Our electric is also going up. They're building one of those AI data centers close to us, and it's really hiked up our bill.

Pointless Venture: President Trump seems to be pretty friendly with the big tech CEOs that are pushing AI. Does that bother you?

Mrs. White: Yes. He said he would bring groceries down, but they've gotten more expensive. Also, my sister can't afford a house and she's been looking for a year. It seems like working families are really being squeezed.

Pointless Venture: Is the President to blame?

Mrs. White: I will say that everything was cheaper last year. I don't know, though. I don't follow the news.

Pointless Venture: Do you regret voting for Trump?

Mrs. White: No, absolutely not. I wasn't about to vote for a childless woman who slept her way to the top!

Pointless Venture: Donald Trump has been accused multiple times of sexual assault, and he was convicted of assaulting Jean E. Carroll in civil court.

Mrs. White: He's also a very famous, rich man. They have it out for him. They always have.

Pointless Venture: Thank you for your time. Can we speak with your children?

Timmy: Yo.

Jill: Hello.

Pointless Venture: You both look like you are of voting age. Did you vote for Trump?

Timmy: Hell yeah!

Jill: I didn't.

Pointless Venture: Why not, Jill?

Jill: He's a fascist.

Pointless Venture: Did you vote for Harris?

Jill: No, she supports genocide.

Pointless Venture: The Israeli-Palestinian situation has worsened since Trump took office.

Jill: Has it? I haven't paid much attention lately. It hasn't been on my feed.

Pointless Venture: So Timmy, do you think the President is doing a good job?

Timmy: I could use a job. I've been looking for months.

Pointless Venture: Do you think the hiring downturn is the President's fault?

Timmy: I dunno. Joe Rogan still seems to like him, so I guess maybe not?

Pointless Venture: Why did you vote for Trump?

Timmy: He's fucking hilarious. Also, he hates the feminists like I do.

Pointless Venture: What's a feminist, Timmy?

Timmy: That sounds like a liberal trap, commie. I'm not going to take the bait.

Pointless Venture: So have you had a date since you voted for the President?

Timmy: That's not your business, fucker! Dad, get this asshole out of the house.

Pointless Venture: Come on, Timmy. Answer the question. Have you ever touched a woman?

Timmy: Get your beta-cuck ass outta here, bro!

Pointless Venture: Thank you for your time.

The Whites: Fuck you!  

New Music: Music For Video Games: Booking It

 

This short instrumental rock song is dedicated to Neon White, a unique first-person platformer that's one of the best video games I've ever played. It's become something of a routine to do one of these every Sunday in an hour or two. It really helps my creative process that I have my computer, guitars, mics, and preamp all together in one room, ready to record. For years I used an ancient Athlon X2 PC from around 2007 to record upstairs in my attic, and all my stuff was spread out and disorganized. Keep your workspace tidy, people! Who the hell am I preaching to? Nobody reads this blog, haha.

 

New Music: Music For Video Games: Rallying Cry

 

This one is a hard rock track dedicated to team play games with your mates, like Helldivers 2. I used the Big Muff and it really tears through this song like a rampaging lion.