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After the workday wrapped up, I collected all of my things in my bag. Fishing rod, net, ax, shovel, slingshot, watering can, outfit wand, diving suit, and vaulting stick. Standard tools for island life. I wasn’t planning on doing anything when I got to the island, but it didn’t feel right to go back after all these years without the usual suspects.
For the better part of the early pandemic back in 2020, I worked remote from the island. Nothing quite says isolated community bubble quite like a random island that needed to be cultivated. They asked me to name the place, which was weird, but who was I to say no to the honor. Named it Bicolano, after the same region of the Philippines that my mom was from. Ended up doing a lot more than naming it. For whatever reason I was also responsible for all urban development and even some terraforming.
I tried to keep the general layout of the island the same. Didn’t mess with the existing elevation too much. There was an existing island within the island though, and I did clean that up a little bit so my house would have a nice little plot of land. I tended to place for about year and then one day, I went back stateside and then… just never went back. It’s not like I didn’t like it, I just… didn’t feel like I needed it as much as those early days of isolation.
But after a few years, it’s hard not to be curious about the places you used to live. So, I booked a flight to the coast and called Redd to sneak me into the island.
I sheepishly met him at the docks little after midnight and went to the guest quarters and passed out. Few hours later, the gentle jousting of the boat woke me, and I stumbled to the surface.
“Hey cousin,” the sly fox greets as I emerged from the lower decks, “still a bit out.”
“Already awake cousin, might as well see the islands off in the distance.”
It’s hard to say exactly how many islands are contained in the New Horizons Archipelago. The higher range of estimates is somewhere around 44 million, and I stopped trying to make sense how that works out logistically a long time ago.
“It would have been much faster to take Dodo Airlines y’know.”
“And wake up everyone with their all-island announcement of an arrival? I just wanna check on a few things that’s all. No fuss, no nothing.”
“They miss you, y’know,” Redd retorted.
“Still not coming back to stay, cousin.”
The fox nodded and parked the boat on the north cove of the island. I gathered my things and under the cover of twilight made the way back to my house and once again fell asleep.
I woke up a little after 5 on a lazy Saturday afternoon. My hair was a mess as I stumbled out the front door to get terrible seasonal allergies and the like, but something about the flowers on the island didn’t trigger my hay fever. The bright colors were disorienting, so I went back into the house for a spell and saw it in proper lighting.
Despite not attending to the place in years, there is a surprising lack of cockroaches. I grabbed breakfast in the kitchen and went into my listening room and vibed to some good ole K.K. Slider. Used the restroom real quick and got a better look at the pastel-colored time capsule I re-entered. There were flowers. I don’t typically do flowers. Quickly ducked upstairs to check my emails and ducked down to make sure all my stuff was ready for when I left.
Afterwards, I checked the campsite out of habit. Who knows how many campers came by and left in my absence? Went to the unmarked tomb in the Northeast Corner of the island which may or may not have something to do with the Bicolano Spike Pit that I made.
The very clearly intended for a very different time and universe landmark was inspired by an episode of Castlevania, but I then wondered if Bicolano did actually have an aswang or manananggal problem that I had just forgotten.
I quickly put the thought aside and worked down the west coast and saw the outdoor theater and pop-up restaurant still up and running. Walked down to the Malachite Littoral and saw that my tribute to the other game that got me through the pandemic was still standing.
The south beach carnival was still up and running. Made me remember the days of island hopping to my friends in the Archipelago and doing exchanges and yard sales. Finding the highest hill and making wishes on shooting stars. Tracking down Sahara and Celeste across the realms. Looked at my art exhibit that every traveler sees over the flyover and was still oddly proud at the sight.
Over on the east in the industrial district, Mabel’s was still standing, and the Museum kept my weird monument in the back. I purposely avoided the residential districts. As I looked at the current island map, I realized I didn’t even recognize all of the names of the residents, but I did figure I had to see one person.
Made my way, and there Puck was. Pink Penguin was still wearing his iconic blue hockey helmet and the jacket I got him ages ago. We talked for a while. I caught him up on things going on stateside, and he gladly proclaimed that things hadn’t really changed. He still played beach volleyball and travels to a nearby island for a hockey league. We both have our routes, our routines, our rituals.
“We worked hard to make sure we have a boring life,” we both uttered and laughed.
Puck looked at me with a knowingness in his eyes, “I’m glad you had this space when you needed it. And I’m glad you found a better space.”
I felt tears swell up, and Puck did me the favor and headed back into his house. He also let me know that the townsfolk still were doing upkeep on the mini-fun museum I constructed after the island had been rated five stars and my first house was rated S, just to have the space be a little fuller.
I headed back to my island within the island and made one last set of rounds. It was built like a home, but it was sparsely decorated. An exercise in simplicity. One last bit of self-expression. I lingered for a bit before calling Redd to take me back stateside, making a note to make a proper return to the pastel time capsule and thank folks properly for getting me through 2020 and some change. It’s tough to fit everything into a weekend trip, but at least I shook off the shock.
The post A Pastel Colored Time Capsule: Returning to the ‘New Horizons’ Archipelago appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
After the workday wrapped up, I collected all of my things in my bag. Fishing rod, net, ax, shovel, slingshot, watering can, outfit wand, diving suit, and vaulting stick. Standard tools for island life. I wasn’t planning on doing anything when I got to the island, but it didn’t feel right to go back after all these years without the usual suspects.
For the better part of the early pandemic back in 2020, I worked remote from the island. Nothing quite says isolated community bubble quite like a random island that needed to be cultivated. They asked me to name the place, which was weird, but who was I to say no to the honor. Named it Bicolano, after the same region of the Philippines that my mom was from. Ended up doing a lot more than naming it. For whatever reason I was also responsible for all urban development and even some terraforming.
I tried to keep the general layout of the island the same. Didn’t mess with the existing elevation too much. There was an existing island within the island though, and I did clean that up a little bit so my house would have a nice little plot of land. I tended to place for about year and then one day, I went back stateside and then… just never went back. It’s not like I didn’t like it, I just… didn’t feel like I needed it as much as those early days of isolation.
But after a few years, it’s hard not to be curious about the places you used to live. So, I booked a flight to the coast and called Redd to sneak me into the island.
I sheepishly met him at the docks little after midnight and went to the guest quarters and passed out. Few hours later, the gentle jousting of the boat woke me, and I stumbled to the surface.
“Hey cousin,” the sly fox greets as I emerged from the lower decks, “still a bit out.”
“Already awake cousin, might as well see the islands off in the distance.”
It’s hard to say exactly how many islands are contained in the New Horizons Archipelago. The higher range of estimates is somewhere around 44 million, and I stopped trying to make sense how that works out logistically a long time ago.
“It would have been much faster to take Dodo Airlines y’know.”
“And wake up everyone with their all-island announcement of an arrival? I just wanna check on a few things that’s all. No fuss, no nothing.”
“They miss you, y’know,” Redd retorted.
“Still not coming back to stay, cousin.”
The fox nodded and parked the boat on the north cove of the island. I gathered my things and under the cover of twilight made the way back to my house and once again fell asleep.
I woke up a little after 5 on a lazy Saturday afternoon. My hair was a mess as I stumbled out the front door to get terrible seasonal allergies and the like, but something about the flowers on the island didn’t trigger my hay fever. The bright colors were disorienting, so I went back into the house for a spell and saw it in proper lighting.
Despite not attending to the place in years, there is a surprising lack of cockroaches. I grabbed breakfast in the kitchen and went into my listening room and vibed to some good ole K.K. Slider. Used the restroom real quick and got a better look at the pastel-colored time capsule I re-entered. There were flowers. I don’t typically do flowers. Quickly ducked upstairs to check my emails and ducked down to make sure all my stuff was ready for when I left.
Afterwards, I checked the campsite out of habit. Who knows how many campers came by and left in my absence? Went to the unmarked tomb in the Northeast Corner of the island which may or may not have something to do with the Bicolano Spike Pit that I made.
The very clearly intended for a very different time and universe landmark was inspired by an episode of Castlevania, but I then wondered if Bicolano did actually have an aswang or manananggal problem that I had just forgotten.
I quickly put the thought aside and worked down the west coast and saw the outdoor theater and pop-up restaurant still up and running. Walked down to the Malachite Littoral and saw that my tribute to the other game that got me through the pandemic was still standing.
The south beach carnival was still up and running. Made me remember the days of island hopping to my friends in the Archipelago and doing exchanges and yard sales. Finding the highest hill and making wishes on shooting stars. Tracking down Sahara and Celeste across the realms. Looked at my art exhibit that every traveler sees over the flyover and was still oddly proud at the sight.
Over on the east in the industrial district, Mabel’s was still standing, and the Museum kept my weird monument in the back. I purposely avoided the residential districts. As I looked at the current island map, I realized I didn’t even recognize all of the names of the residents, but I did figure I had to see one person.
Made my way, and there Puck was. Pink Penguin was still wearing his iconic blue hockey helmet and the jacket I got him ages ago. We talked for a while. I caught him up on things going on stateside, and he gladly proclaimed that things hadn’t really changed. He still played beach volleyball and travels to a nearby island for a hockey league. We both have our routes, our routines, our rituals.
“We worked hard to make sure we have a boring life,” we both uttered and laughed.
Puck looked at me with a knowingness in his eyes, “I’m glad you had this space when you needed it. And I’m glad you found a better space.”
I felt tears swell up, and Puck did me the favor and headed back into his house. He also let me know that the townsfolk still were doing upkeep on the mini-fun museum I constructed after the island had been rated five stars and my first house was rated S, just to have the space be a little fuller.
I headed back to my island within the island and made one last set of rounds. It was built like a home, but it was sparsely decorated. An exercise in simplicity. One last bit of self-expression. I lingered for a bit before calling Redd to take me back stateside, making a note to make a proper return to the pastel time capsule and thank folks properly for getting me through 2020 and some change. It’s tough to fit everything into a weekend trip, but at least I shook off the shock.
The post A Pastel Colored Time Capsule: Returning to the ‘New Horizons’ Archipelago appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Doctor Who season 1 (NOT series 14) will give us a full slate of adventures with Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson. It feels like forever since we saw the pair take on their first Earthly adventure in the 2023 Christmas special “The Church on Ruby Road.” After running into musical goblins and some time traveling magic, the pair were off for great adventures in the TARDIS. A previous teaser gave us a glimpse into all the upcoming action, but now we have a full trailer for Doctor Who season 1 with lots of Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday goodness. We are so glad that the Disney+ premiere date for the next Doctor Who season is almost here!
The Doctor Who trailer takes us into a few of Fifteen and Ruby’s really wacky adventures. There’s everything from dinosaurs to a lizard Ruby to a trip to the Regency era past. I truly love the “Oh my Bridgerton!” line from Ruby. Things start off very whimsical before they get a bit darker in spots, including a scene where Ruby weeps over a destroyed London. The Doctor also hits some level of frustration as he screams into the space void from the threshold of his TARDIS. Speaking of that fabulous vessel, I’m a little terrified at how its abandoned look towards the end of the clip.
We get a couple of glimpses of Jinkx Monsoon as the latest Doctor Who villain, but not much to chew on there. All in all, this is a great glimpse into the fun that’s coming.
Sidenote: Ruby and Fifteen are so fly and I want to be the third person in the TARDIS. Please, please come take me away from Earth. It’s very ghetto here.
What Is the Premiere Date for Doctor Who season 1?
Doctor Who season 1 will bring Fifteen and Ruby to our screens on May 10. We will get the first two episodes on that date at 4PM PT/ 7PM ET. US fans can catch new episodes on Disney+.
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March has brought incredibly sad news in the announcement of the passing of Akira Toriyama. Dragon Ball Z’s official X (formerly known as Twitter) account confirmed the news on Thursday.
“We are deeply saddened to inform you that Manga creator Akira Toriyama passed away on March 1st due to acute subdural hematoma,” the post reads. An acute subdural hematoma is a condition where the blood collects between the skull and the surface of the brain.
Toriyama was only sixty-eight years old and was still actively working not just in the manga industry (on Dragon Ball Super illustrated by Toyotarou) but with animation projects like Dragon Ball Diama as well. The news shocked the world as Dragon Ball, Toriyama’s greatest series– is a globally loved, and the mangaka will be sorely missed.
I grew up with Dragon Ball (and Dragon Ball Z, GT, and all that came afterwards) the latter’s manga and anime adaptation and spinoff series were some gateways into the world of Japanese anime for many of my generation. Son Goku is the Shonen grandpa like figure that inspired so many loved Shonen heroes like Naruto, Luffy, Ichigo and more that came after him. Goku is perhaps one of the recognizable anime characters of the more modern age and work he has been featured in contained multitudes: comedy, martial arts, action, adventures, and enough moments between comrades, families, and friends.
I may have grown up with Dragon Ball, but that iconic franchise is not where my interest in Akira Toriyama’s work ended. My high school library received funding that resulted in a huge new order of books that included manga and graphic novels–much to the glee of me and my fellow students. This is where I discovered the single volume of Sandland: a sort of apocalyptic setting with a ruined, wasteland Earth with desert galore and a demon’s son on an adventure with an unlikely trio.
I remember really loving Toriyama’s art style and the appeal of a single contained story. I also found a few volumes of Dr. Slump, Toriyama’s Robot girl hi-jinks, in an eighteen-volume series that was my first introduction to gag manga. To this day, Arale the child like robot is one of my favorite characters of all manga and anime. Whenever I think back to the shenanigans and the pure goofiness of the series it always awakens the joy and silliness of that time for me as a teenager when I first discovered it.
On the bluesky app, translator Zack Davisson translated One Piece author Eiichiro Oda’s statement regarding Toriyama’s death (originally posted by Oda to Shonen Jump) and reading through it I really felt the admiration that he had of Toriyama since he was a child:
“I have admired him so much since I was a child, so I remember the day he called me by name for the first time. On the way home, he used the word ‘friend’ for us.” Reading through the statement, Oda mentions that Dragon Ball influenced so many creatives, not just manga artists. The manga artist also mentioned that Toriyama helped “…create a world where adults and children alike could read and enjoy manga.”
I thought about my own connection to Toriyama–sure I hadn’t really interacted with much Dragon Ball media in recent months, but I have a nephew, Kayden, who has. He’s turning thirteen this year and was raised on the adventures of Goku and friends. His dad, my big brother, asked me where to purchase some anime graphic tees online, and I directed him to a few places where he gladly bought some Dragon Ball Z shirts for his son. When I talked on the phone with my brother earlier this week, he exclaimed that the only thing that his son wants to read is manga right now (that was me at the age too) and his small, but growing manga library only contains Toriyama’s work.
The last time the kid was at my home, he carefully explained Dragon Ball Super’s timeline and big events and even humored me when I asked him if Janet, Pan’s teacher, was Piccolo’s love interest. Thinking back to this encounter, I thought perhaps we are all children of Dragon Ball–me and my brothers and cousins and all the kids we went to school with who chatted up the manga, the anime and the video games during our school time hours. And this newer generation–the kids of today like my nephew who is going to eighth grade next year, probably wearing his Dragon Ball Z shirts if he can still fit them next year.
Today, I’ve discovered some surprising and heartfelt reveals: from learning that the JSL (Japanese Sign Language) sign for Dragon Ball is apparently a kamehameha gesture to an older otaku reminding us of Osamu Tezuka’s (the father or grandfather of the medium of manga) high praise of Toriyama’s work. Reading through tribute after tribute made me realize that we are all children of Dragon Ball and children of Akira Toriyama’s incredible talent that inspired us to search for what it was that made the adventure one to take on, and of course, the friends we made along the way. I think of Oda’s last words in his statement about the death of his sensei, his friend, Toriyama: “I hope that heaven will be as a delightful place as he imagined it.”
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The post ‘Dragon Ball’ Creator, Akira Toriyama, Passes Away at 68 appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.