No Lives Left

Spoilers for Plot Points of Ms. Marvel Episode 4. But if you've been following this, you know I am planning on spoiling the whole thing.  Episode 4 is in the books. In this episode, Kamala travels to Karachi, Pakistan to visit her Nani. I was originally wondering if she would somehow sneak out with Bruno to go on an international flight, but it seems like there was an offscreen reason for Kamala's mother to visit. In any case, Kamala meets her cousins who don't really do anything throughout the episode (they are just excuses as to why Kamala can do stuff without her mom knowing). She meets new superheroes that fight Djinn called the Red Daggers who immediately fail at fighting Djinn/ClanDestines (they end up escaping to protect Kamala).  We do get to see more of Ms. Marvel's powers and how she controls Noor  (Light), so that was cool. I have warmed up to the powers she has but I do wish she had the powers from the comics. In this show, it feels like she has a limited ve...

  We're at the halfway point of the first season of Ms. Marvel Season 1. I think I've come to peace with the... style ...this show is going for. I realize that Marvel is trying to bring a new superhero into the MCU, so they trying to cram her origin story and make her develop into a real character so that she can be involved in other MCU affairs. Yet, other shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones (I know, they are Netflix shows) were able to provide a compelling story in their inception shows.  In this weeks episode, Kamala is now dealing with the fallout from her mistakes when saving the boy at the mosque minaret. A video of her goes viral, the Damage Control starts snooping around her mosque, and Bruno might be leaving for caltech. Not to mention that she is befriended by people known as the Clandestines (or Djinn?)that know who she and her great grandmother are. They have a simple request: To use Kamala's power to get back home. Kamala finds out that its dangerous and the...

I am going preface this post like I did with the first one:  I do enjoy seeing Muslims depicted with  more nuance than one dimensional villains. It's great to see Muslims as characters who have lives with decisions and struggles just like any other demographic in America. It's a great method to get non-Muslims related to Muslims without really knowing  a Muslim.  However, another word of caution is that I don't recall if I could relate to all the things 16-year old Kamala went through as a teenager. I didn't have as big of a Muslim community growing up and didn't have many Muslim friends that I went to school with. I'm over 30 years old but some things I will mention are coming from a person who isn't "cool with it" anymore. Also I never grew up into desi culture. I was an Indian-born white boy through and through. I don't know Urdu and don't know Bollywood at all.  That being said, I didn't like episode 2. I was optimistic from the ini...

It's been a while since I talked about Muslim representation in the big and little screen. Ramy was the last show I watched and I ended up feeling conflicted about where it landed in my headspace. On one hand, it's cool to see a main character who is Muslim and struggling to be more religious and practicing  (something I can always relate to). On the other, watching some dude committing explicit acts and also deal with some suggestive and unnerving situations kind of goes against your own religion's teachings-even if it's "only acting."  I have made peace with Ramy since then and am glad to note that I do not have ill will toward Ms. Marvel. In fact, I somewhat enjoyed the first episode. It reminded me of a teen Nickelodeon show mixed with the tone set in most MCU movies. While it's only been one episode, I wanted to muse about what I thought was good and what wasn't. I also wanted to overreact a bit since, well, it's what I like to so. I definitel...

I finally did it. I finally beat Elden Ring. Or at least got one of the six endings  the game has to offer. It took over 100 hours and plenty of deaths. In the end though, I'm so happy that I completed this endeavor. While I was very excited in the first 30 hours  of experiencing the game, I think I have different thoughts after completing the game.  One thing that has remained constant is how impressed I was at how large this game truly is. Each area kept my jaw dropped with how big  each area was. Stumbling across vast open vistas with verticality in each area never got old. Underground dungeons, hidden passageways,  and sneaky shortcuts strewn about everywhere to encouraged exploration. So many "legacy" dungeons very expertly crafted (legacy being basically larger, story-driven, dungeons). And while it certainly was a positive, the grand scale of Elden Ring  really got tiring. By the end of the game, I was exhausted.  Don't get me wrong, each area w...

  There is a pizza place a couple hours away from where I live that is simply one of a kind. The place smokes it's own brisket and puts it on a pizza with homemade barbecue sauce. It's delicious and it's probably the only halal brisket pizza in Southern California. It's an amazing treat and each time I ever have a chance to have it, I oblige. Sadly, those chances are very few and far between. It always strikes me as funny to daydream about a pizza place when there are just so many  around (some with better quality pizza). All it takes is one refreshing idea to make pizza seem new and special. While being so far away from it can be a detriment, it somehow helps with adding quality to the experience. I savor the moment since there aren't many opportunities to have it.   On another note, there is a shawarma spot near where I live that my friend owns. I've been supporting the place (and my friend) ever since they were selling sandwiches out of a pick-up truck at far...

  I love my Nintendo Switch. Despite it being under powered, it's still an awesome portable gaming platform with fantastic titles that don't actually look like they are from the PS2 era. Nintendo puts out stellar games year after year and none of them have to be played sitting down. Not to downplay that the Switch's docked mode which is great for when you have guests or want to experience gaming on the big screen. As I've grown up, life just naturally makes it hard to plays games for extended, uninterrupted periods of time. Nowadays, even if I have free time, I get anxious thinking about starting a game thinking that some new distraction will pop up and take me away. But with a Switch, I can always pop open a game and make some type of progress and be able to put it away quickly if something pops up. So when Valve announced the Steam Deck I got a little giddy. The thought of experiencing all my PC games on the go was rather tempting. Imagine playing the latest AAA game ...