Whatcha Playin’, Coffee?

I did it! I collected all 120 Power Stars in Super Mario 64! It’s kind of a big deal for me as I never achieved that before. I even got the big, secret message from the Super Mario Club, which was pretty dope, not gonna lie.

With Mario 64 done, it was back to Metroid Prime Remastered. In the past few days spanning about two to three hours per session, I had:

• Wrecked Thardus
• Got the Spider Ball
• Pilfered the Wavebuster
• Nabbed the Ice Beam
• Busted some Ghost Chozos
• Negated water physics with the Gravity Suit (Shame about the lava tho…)
• Snuck into the Phazon Mines, almost got killed but still obtained the Power Bombs
• Reclaimed the Grappling Beam
• Added the Ice Spreader 
• Equipped the Plasma Beam
• Augmented it with the Flamethrower
• Tore the Omega Pirate a new one
• And finally, obtained the Phazon Suit and Beam

All of that while nabbing a butt-ton of Missile and Energy Tank expansions.

I haven’t done a playthrough of Prime on the GameCube since like, 2016 or so. At this point, I’m just breezing through. Seriously, the level of muscle memory I have for this game is asinine haha. I wouldn’t be surprised to have the game finished by Friday night. I may even do a Hard mode run because I need to be challenged!

Whatcha Writin’, Coffee?

First thing’s first: Stats for this week:

Chapters complete: 1

Chapter in progress: 2

Chapters remaining: 47

Words wrote:  2,373 (+202 words from last week)

Progress is slow and plodding at this point. This whole week has been spent working towards making chapter 2 make sense – it’s intended to be a quick recap of the events of Book 1. Ah well, there will be times when writing is slow or when I’m knocking out chapters left, right and centre.

Still working on the Sonic Frontiers write-up, still working towards an end-of-month or early April completion. The fatherhood post is also delayed (surprise, surprise). Seriously, illnesses can take a hike for all I care.

Whatcha Watchin’, Coffee?

Nothing new on the watch front, this week. I did, however, forget that I pre-ordered Volume 3 of the Sonic the Hedgehog IDW run, so I’ve been reading that this week. This volume concludes the Metal Virus saga. Volume 2 saw Dr. Eggman regain his memories and launch the Metal Virus – a metal contagion that bonds to organic matter and transforms the subject into a robot. So, think Roboticization meets your typical zombie apocalypse. The writing and art are superb. Ian Flynn and the staff working on the comics really make the main characters suffer for their victories, and I’m all for it!

How’s Trainin’, Coffee?

This was a good week for training! I got in about 4 days this week. 15-minute workouts on my non-loading days and kettlebell training on my heavy-load days. I see some gains in the arms and chest. Oh, and I’ve also been doing squats to put Little Macchiato down for naps!

Whatcha Streamin’, Coffee?

So, Mrs. Coffee and I had some serious discussions about the future of our creative pursuits. In an effort to be transparent, you’ll soon be seeing some affiliate links included in some posts where I talk about products and even here in the “Whatcha Up To” column from time to time. I promise you that my regular content, where we talk about more serious topics, will not have those links. With that said, streaming is still on track to resume in April. I’m stoked to return to streaming and, more importantly, reconnect with my community.

Creating music has been a big distraction from my current reality (apart from video games, that is). What started off with me needing background music for video content has turned into a new creative outlet. Right now, I completed my God of War: Ragnarok-inspired track and now I have ideas for the rest of the day stages from Sonic Unleashed. 

Next week, I finally delve into shooting video content. Hopefully.