“Being human means you have to die, whether you’ve lived out your dreams or not.”
That line, although nothing new, got stuck in my head after watching a vintage anime movie Galaxy Express 999 at the WHS Union theatre. The movie was on surface about a kid determined to avenge his mother’s murder while traveling throughout the galaxy space opera style, but the themes it touched were more about the finite existence of a human’s life.
While some in the audience chuckled to moments in the film that might not have aged well, I was overall impressed by its mostly serene pace and great, melodic orchestra music. In fact, I even felt like applauding in the end, but since nobody else took the initiative, I didn’t.
I think it was one of the best anime movies I’ve seen in a while, even though it wasn’t anything close to the likes of Akira or Spirited Away. I wouldn’t even rate it five stars, but there was something I appreciated in it.
Puzzle solving
I ended my over a month long video gaming hiatus by buying and playing Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, a puzzle mystery of sorts set in an European hotel hosting a cryptic art exhibition. According to the save file took me 32 hours to finish, but in reality I played the puzzles in my head outside the gaming sessions too.
Wandering around a hotel full of puzzles.
The game required a pen and notebook to figure out most of the puzzles, which was something I haven’t done with a game in ages. The puzzles were just challenging enough for me to keep me going and even when they seemed to be too abstract to solve, on another day they suddenly made complete sense. Amazing how the human brain can decipher so many things into something logical.
Overall, a good game with nods to the original PlayStation era games.
Vinyl additions
Finally, I boosted my vinyl collection with three albums by Depeche Mode: Violator, Songs of Faith and Devotion and Ultra. Each (re-release) album was packed into only one vinyl, but I didn’t notice any trade-offs in the sound quality.
Although I’ve listened to all these albums to death during my lifetime, Ultra sounds this time around better than I remembered. Might even be my favourite album by them at this moment!