In between the myriad of awful things that have happened in the last several weeks nationwide, a much more trivial event has impacted me on a more personal level.
DeNA, a developer of various mobile games, announced that "Final Fantasy: Record Keeper" will be shutting down at the end of September.

I intended to write this column about a silly mobile game I play, but that feels inappropriate considering what happened last week with the Supreme Court.
In case you somehow missed it, on Friday the Supreme Court officially confirmed its decision to reverse a 50 year old precedent on Roe v Wade, the ruling that has protected a woman's right to decide whether or not to have an abortion.

Graphical fidelity in games has definitely come a long way since I was a kid, but more and more it's becoming clear that there isn't much further they can go.

It's June, and that means it's time for E3.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo has, traditionally, been one of the biggest weeks of the year for the video game industry. The perfect time for publishers to make big announcements and put out trailers to generate hype for their upcoming titles.

So, a weird thing happened this weekend.
A really mediocre movie returned to theaters and did exactly as well as you would expect it to against a line-up that includes "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."

Another year, another class of students graduating.
Whether graduating high school or college, a fresh crop of eager young people will soon be entering the workforce.
Not a moment too soon either. The worker shortage that businesses are experiencing across the state isn't getting any better.

There's been a bit of hubbub about Netflix lately.
In the face of subscription losses, it seems that the trailblazer of streaming services is doubling back towards some rocky terrain. Specifically, rumors are abound that the company is looking into adding an ad-supported tier of service to the platform.

It seems like we're approaching the end of an era.
About ten years at a San Diego ComicCon I caught the premiere of "Arrow," a new D.C. Comics adaptation of the Green Arrow meant to fill the gap left by the conclusion of "Smallville"

Elon Musk is buying Twitter. Or has already bought it. Or is in the process?
I'm honestly not sure because, like many people I'm sure, the words "Elon Musk has…" triggers an intense feeling of disinterest. One that is only amplified by the notion that Twitter should at all be taken seriously.
After all. It's just Twitter.

Finally, at long last, we have a trailer for "Thor: Love and Thunder."
We've got our first glance at what the MCU's God of Thunder has been up to since sauntering off to space at the end of "Avengers: Endgame." He's lost some weight, he's doing some space pirating, hanging out with the Greek pantheon. And, in the meantime, Jane Foster is running around with a newly reforged Mjolnir.

The still untitled sequel to Nintendo's "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," commonly known as Breath of the Wild 2, was announced in 2019.

I went out to watch "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" this weekend.

I bought a new video game this weekend.
"Triangle Strategy," a new tactics based RPG for the Nintendo Switch. It cost me $59.99 before tax.
How is that possible?
There's a lot of talk these days about inflation. The price of everything is going up. A dollar doesn't go as far as it used to.

I caught up on "Only Murders in the Building" this weekend, featuring the dynamic duo of Steve Martin and Martin Short. The comedic legends, now well into their 70s, are still paling around onscreen after more than three decades. In the show, Short and Martin play a mismatched pair of past-their-prime entertainers that end up getting hooked on solving murders while leaning into the fact that they are of an elder generation.

With season two of "Star Trek: Picard" underway and "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" upcoming, it looks like it's time to activate a Paramount+ subscription. Running at $4.99 a month for the subscription with commercial interruptions, it's pretty small price to pay for catching up on all that's been happening in the final frontier.