Weekend Wrap 1/11/2026

Each weekend, I like to pause, reflect, and look back on the past week. This isn't a deep dive or grand reflection—just a quick review of a handful of things that brought me joy, made me think, or challenged me.

Music

Sometimes I forget I added an album, and then stumble across it later, only to wonder what my problem was and ask myself why I hadn’t been listening to something all this time.

While it was only early November when Cold Steel dropped their debut album, Discipline and Punish, it wasn’t until the last couple of weeks that I began to listen in earnest.

And I am loving it.

This is old school thrash, with a dash of hardcore and punk thrown in to just really crank the attitude up. There is a swagger on Discipline and Punish that you wouldn’t expect from such a young band, and it oozes through the speakers. The energy is infectious, the groove is undeniable, and I’m loving this album.

Games

I’ve been Dispatch curious for a couple of months since it began rolling out in October. The pedigree behind the studio is admirable, and there aren’t many making this style of visual novel/adventure games.

I finally picked it up during the Steam winter sale, and after starting it, pushed on through to finish it in just two days. That should tell you what you need to know.

What if you were a superhero, lost the source of your power, and had to dispatch other, misfit heroes on their calls to heroism? That's Dispatch.

The gameplay is engaging and has enough challenge to keep one interested, but the story and the characters are the stars here. I definitely hope we get more stories in this world and with these characters in the future. I’m ready for more.

Books

I finished The Three-Body Problem a week or two ago. Since then, I dove into The Dark Forest. I’m enjoying it, to be sure. At the same time, it is just awkward enough due to the translation that the going is a bit slow.

Still, the world is interesting enough to keep me engaged, and I look forward to finding out more about Earth’s preparations for the Trisolarans. I can say this, though: I will be looking for something a tad lighter when this series is done.

Quote of the week

How often have we heard that phrase, “fake it ‘til you make it”, and found ourselves rolling our eyes?

But we shouldn’t. Because faking it, over and over again, is making it. That’s just building up our habits. The first time we work out, or the first time after a while, we aren’t athletes. We are, in essence, “faking it.”

That is just life. We do something we aren’t good at, and then do it over and over again, and we get better. Often, it is the doing that matters the most.

So, let’s keep faking it, because we all know, deep down, that we are. Every day.

Room for improvement

In the past, I’ve called this section What Didn't Work.

I'm retiring that. It's more negative than I want to be. While part of what I want to do here is be honest, I think that, for myself at least, I want to reframe this as Room for Improvement.

The honesty is there, but the focus is different. Rather than dwelling on the bad, I hope to change it and focus on where I can do better. And this is one of those things.

I want to be more optimistic. Maybe not positive. The cynic in me isn't ready to commit to that, but I am ready to work on being more optimistic. I think there is a difference. Being positive could easily involve ignoring the truth. And as this week showed us, the truth is pretty damn messed up.

But being optimistic involves believing that, despite the bad that surrounds us, change can come. We aren't condemned to live in this current reality forever. Things can change, and hopefully for the better.

Being optimistic requires that we be willing to be part of making things better. Being positive means we are able to stick our heads in the sand and ignore reality.

I'm going to strive to be optimistic.

Wrapping up

I have an article about my refinement for the first month drafted. But between family being here and another child getting married, time wasn't on my side. I hope to have it out next week as I try to focus a bit more on a more regular schedule writing here.

It's been a chaotic few months since this past summer; maybe things will settle a bit now. Either way, I'll continue to work away.