Eating More

This is gonna be one of my health update posts for those who inquire from time to time. I don't think I'll ever be 100% of what I was prior to my bout with stomach cancer, but I continue to improve.

Ever since my surgery I've tracked what I eat with a goal of hitting 1600 calories a day, which was enough to maintain my weight, but not really enough to gain, and the entire thing was derailed by my shingles episode last year. I had a "nice" weight I was maintaining, but lost almost ten pounds that I didn't have when the shingles was so bad I didn't want to eat. (The shingles was on my head and gave me incredible eye and headaches.)

Though it eventually got better (mostly, I'm still on pain medication for the nerve damage it caused), I've spent the past year trying to play catch up, and I still have not gotten back to my early February 2022 weight. But, things are getting better.

My capacity to eat will never be what it used to be (no stomach equals less space to store incoming food), but I'm getting better at identifying what digests quickly for the amount of calories provided and I added a calorie column to my food tracker so I can track long term how much I'm eating. When I can, I try to add in a little more, pushing my intake to 1700 or 1800 by the end of the day.

My oncologist thinks that it may be best for me not to push myself too hard and focus more on maintaining than gaining, and I think I'm doing at least that.

OPUS: Echo of Starsong

Platform: Switch (also on Windows and iOS)
Release: 2022 (enhanced), 2021 (original)

OPUS: Echo of Starsong is the first I played in the OPUS series, but serves as a stand alone story in an anthology that seems primarily connected by mood and narrative genre (science fiction) and not necessary by the type of games they are. I was drawn to it mostly due to the trailer for the enhanced version, which promised a heart rending love story set in space with the newly added voice acting. And the music is lovely. I have the soundtrack playing as I write this.

Though it's more of a space exploration game from a mechanics perspective (think of games where you're constantly looking for new resources to sell so you can buy fuel and upgrades for your ship), it's heavily story based, with most of the narrative delivered through visual novel style dialogue boxes and artwork stills for cut scenes. Incidental events and encounters flesh out the worldbuilding.

The game interestingly enough doesn't have a title screen, with simply the option to start, bringing the player in for a landing as an elderly man exits his spacecraft on some strange world because of a task he will not entrust to anyone else. We learn that his name is Jun, and he is here because of Eda, who he has not seen in 66 years. At this point in his life he has retired from his duties as clan leader and it's clear that he is not without some regret.

With elderly Jun serving as our narrator and the frame story, we go back to when he first arrives in the star system of Thousand Peaks.

Anime Talk: Psycho-Pass: The Movie

I've talked about Psycho-Pass numerous times on my blog before, having come to the series late and then catching up in a semi-haphazard manner. I watched all three TV seasons, which was relatively easy since they're often simulcast and thus quickly picked up by streaming services, but the thing I was missing was the four movies; the original The Movie and the Sinners in the System trilogy.

When Funimation acquired Cruchyroll and the two biggest anime streaming services merged, Funimation's titles gradually started appearing (or reappearing in some cases) on Cruchyroll. Psycho-Pass had been a Funimation license up until the third season, which Amazon picked up during its exclusivity deal with the Noitamina programming block which produces the series. The Movie had streamed on Funimation, but hadn't appeared on other platforms like Hulu where they would sometimes share content, and me being unwilling to shell out a sub just for one movie, I didn't watch it until finally... I noticed the other day that it had popped up on post-acquisition Crunchyroll.

Watching day had come.

If you've read my previous Psycho-Pass posts, you know that one of the things I'm really keen on is how future stories build on the foundations and limitations of the Sibyl System established in the first season. A "good" continuation will provide tension while expanding on how crime can still happen in a world where the probability of a person commiting a crime can be analyzed down to a number, and without resorting to the asymptomatic trick that was used in the first season (where a person for whatever reason simply cannot be read).