Weekend Wrap 4/19/2026

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

It was almost a relief when no new music I was interested in came out this Friday. It gave me some more time to dive into past releases. This week, that was all about MASTER BOOT RECORD. At least when I wasn't obsessing over the new Archspire...

MASTER BOOT RECORD is just something different.

And so, so cool. That combination of heavy metal song writing and sensibility, with the chip tune/electronic sound, and the energy of a Bach toccata is extremely appealing. I've been listening to a lot lately, particularly Realtime Execution, the first live release. It has a different feel, with live guitars and drums.

But it is so good. And always a good reminder that I should listen to more MBR.

Books

By the time this newsletter drops, I expect I will be done (or very nearly done) with This Inevitable Ruin, book 7 of Dungeon Crawler Carl. Book 8 comes out in a month, and I have been powering through the series.

I enjoy them. I really do. So I don't want what I am about to say to seem like I am being critical. But it is still going to come across that way.

DCC is pure fluff.

It is cotton candy. Goes down so sweet and smooth. You want another bite. But it doesn't sustain. I'm not criticizing anyone who loves these books. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading them (and listening to them — excellent narration). But they go so quickly because there isn't much there.

The world continues to grow, but I feel like even the moments that should carry weight simply don't. The world, as constructed, is too disposable. There just isn't much substance here.

But it is a really fun ride.

Movies

Per reports, the initial trailer for Avengers: Doomsday dropped at CinemaCon this week. There is a lot of buzz. I might be excited. I'm still not sure.

Thunderbolts* and Fantastic Four: First Steps were both really good returns to form for MCU movies. But this week on Generationsmore closely, we did a tier list of all 37 released MCU films, and I was surprised how many were in the middle tiers.

With so many movies, it would seem likely that there would be a lot of middling movies. But still, movies that I remember really liking when they came out still ended up ranked pretty low after a little time.

I'd love it if you gave it a listen. Aubrey and I had a lot of fun running through these movies.

And I do think Doomsday may be pretty good. Cautious optimism over here.

Refinement

My nightly routine was pretty out of whack this week due to travel and late nights waiting up for my teenager. But I still tried to maintain some consistency, particularly with getting up in the morning, even if it meant a little less sleep.

Workouts were solid. I've pushed my reps in all exercises, so this week I up the weight. It is good to see some progress in that regard. It makes consistency easier to maintain.

It has been a good month of dialing things in a bit more. Making sure they are more locked in. Making them something that more closely resembles a habit.

Hopefully.

Quote of the week

The Gone Away World, by Nick Harkaway, remains to this day my favorite novel. Ever. Period. It is silly, and ridiculous, and over-the-top (ninjas fighting pirates fighting mimes, no, I'm not kidding).

It also is deeply human and thought provoking.

This quote emphasizes that humanity. The system doesn't care about you or me. Or anyone. The system wants efficiency. It wants productivity. It wants maximum output from minimum input.

But humans are messy. We are inefficient. Our minds wander. We daydream.

It is beautiful.

Those inefficiencies make us human. They make us more than the machines that surround us. They make us interesting and varied and something to be celebrated. Yes, we still have things we need to do. But celebrate life while we do it. Celebrate our weirdness, our uniqueness.

Celebrate being human.

Area of improvement

This week I want to get back into a routine. Travel and weirdness made that tough, but it is time to settle in again.

Get into a healthy routine, make progress, but enjoy life while I do it.

Wrapping up

I have something I have been working on. It will only appeal to a small selection of people, but I hope to be able to share it later this week.

I'm not a coder. But I have been using AI tools to create things to fill specific needs for myself, and it has been very fun and satisfying. I know people have a lot of complicated feelings about AI. I do as well.

But when we use them as force multipliers, helping us spend more time on those things that make us human, they become powerful tools.