Third Quarter – 2025

A brief look at a brief time.

Outings

I spent a few days at the tail end of July at White Point resort & environs, and then in Halifax with the family (more photos here).

The lighthouse in Liverpool

Then I spent a few more days at the tail end of August at the Happy Mountain chalet & spa with some of my oldest friends.

Cabin, spa

Both trips were lovely, but as always it was also very nice to come home.

Biking

I’ve started calling it “bike & bouffe,” as I ride out to a café or diner or dive that I’ve been curious about for a while. For instance, I’d heard about these two poutines…

Décarie Hot Dogs

Paul Patates

They were both, unsurprisingly, incredible.

Also this year, I’ve started following the Montreal Gazette on Strava for route ideas. I’d already tried most of the routes they’ve posted so far, but the account did inspire me to take both Jacques-Cartier & Champlain bridges in one round trip, ending up at Café September for a cheeky brunch.

Jacques-Cartier

Champlain

Incredible mimosa. Not pictured: incredible tomato toast.

Incidentally, yes, I’m on Strava, but it is very much selling out, so I’m also trying Komoot, if you want to catch me there, or have other suggestions.

Books

I had to DNF a few books recently, leading me to wonder why I picked them up in the first place. As with games & movies, I’ll often add things to my lists on someone else’s recommendation (which, I know, is Normal); but I’m starting to wonder why I consume the things that I do, beyond that. What is my actual taste? What do I actually like? Still undefined, which leads to these false starts.

Oh, The Glass Hotel was extremely touching and sad. Mandel excels at spanning time and space with unseen human connection. There, put it on the cover.

Otherwise, given the number of outings—see above—and park & terrasse hangouts that are so much a part of summer, and all the false starts, I’m a little behind on my reading goal for the year, I think. Still, that’s what the Q4 holidays are for.

Film & TV

Okay jumping back just a bit, I realised I didn’t post last time about Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which we wrapped back in June. My partner’s been after me for a while to try it and… she was right! Took me a while to get onboard; I felt like—for what is, at the start, a dark and personal story—the tone was a little all over the place, in a way that probably worked better in the manga; but Alphonse kind of won me over (cf. Greg), and I got pulled in by the wider political story in the latter half of the series.

I got around to finishing The Pirates of Dark Water, which came up surprisingly regularly around the water cooler in the early days of KO_OP. It has some unexpected, genuinely fun world-building! Great locations & beasts & hazards… a shame they never got around to finding treasures 8 to 13 of Rule.

Somewhere in my travels, before I found Letterboxd, I had a spreadsheet (of course I did) of movies-to-watch; and somehow, the name “The Devil’s Pass” ended up on that list. There are several movies with the name, and I had no idea how I’d come by it, why I’d wanted to watch it, or even which one to watch… so I chose this one. I’m glad I did! Gorgeous semi-documentary footage around Afghanistan.

Similarly I-don’t-know-why-this-is-here (see my note about fielding suggestions above) was Touch of Evil, an Orson Welles film noir joint. It’s got Chuck Heston in brownface, distracting staccato editing in places (possibly due to the studio), intentional stretches of overlapping dialogue, and it’s missing a massive content warning for sexual violence. It’s a good and interesting noir for a lot of reasons but also boy, you need to be ready for it.

Games

My first impressions of Skin Deep were right! I’ve jokingly, reductively been calling it “indie Hitman”, and I don’t think that’s entirely wrong, but the resemblance is only, well. It’s truly its own, very Blendo thing. Shout-out to the writing, the pacing, the music, the cats.

Took me roughly the whole span of the quarter, but I played through the full System Shock 2 25th Anniversary Remaster, on a Navy kick. This was roughly my… fourth full playthrough of the base game, I think? (Most recently, I played an OSA run in early 2023, which I streamed over here). Nothing wholly new to report—Nightdive didn’t make any editorial changes (afaik), just combined several mods & patches to make the game run well, and without fuss, on modern systems. Entirely worth it, for me. The game’s still a master class in audio work and place-setting.

Music

I picked up a bunch of music during recent Bandcamps Friday! Standouts…

• GUSH, by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
• Music for Nitrous Oxide (30th Anniversary), by Stars of the Lid
• The Phantom Spark soundtrack, by Regular Graphics
• Start Breaking My Heart by Caribou

And hey, any time my favourite band shadow-drops a new EP, I’m happy. Behold the Elder: Liminality/Dream State Return. 🤘

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The kids are calling it “July to September 2025.” What do you think?

♥🖖