Agent Palmer

On February 26th, 2021, James Turner commenced the final stream of season one of his Punch-A-Chunk world. The culmination of 13 months of work was, based on the reaction from his chat, as therapeutic to those watching during a pandemic as it was to James himself.

The mood in the chat began both celebratory and thankful. What started as a pre-pandemic joke in February 2020 clearly became a salvation for both James and his viewers as the community grew.

Around the time that the film adaptation of Lost Moon, called Apollo 13 came out, my parents who knew I was in love with all things NASA bought me the book by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.

The book, in a concerted marketing effort with the movie was also retitled from Lost Moon to Apollo 13 and with a picture of not Lovell but Tom Hanks as Lovell on the front cover. And while I read the book, or read through it when I picked it up recently, I now had the knowledge of the other books I’ve been reading.

I’ve always been enamored by the Space Program. I remember putting on a football helmet, backpack covered in tin foil, recreating Armstrong’s first steps on the moon for something, though I have no idea what and that was when I was 8 or 9?

I remember watching The Right Stuff and, what is quite possibly the best miniseries on the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo era of NASA Moonshot which was co-written by Deke Slayton and Al Shepherd.

This past weekend Magic The Gathering’s Mythic Invitational at PAX East was the siren’s call… Magic: The Gathering is aiming to be an esports powerhouse. With $1,000,000 Prize Pool and 64 invitees ranging from content streamers on Twitch, Magic Pro League Players, and the top 8 from Magic: The Gathering Arena, along with streaming the whole tournament across four days on Twitch, this is not a moment to be taken lightly.

Now, I’m not new to Magic, but I am new to Magic Arena. I’ve only been playing online for a few months, due to the fact that I once tried Magic Online and it felt like a more expansive version of Shandalar.

Looking back at 2015, it’s safe to say that another banner geek year has passed. So let’s take a look into what made this one so special.

Starting at the movies, the record for box office opening was broken twice this year, and almost three times, all with geek movies. First, in May, Avengers: Age of Ultron fell just shy ($191,271,109) of its predecessor, Marvel’s The Avengers ($207,438,708). Then in July, Jurassic World took over the top spot ($208,806,270), and lastly the current record holder from earlier this month, Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($247,966,675).