Billionaire Toby Neugebauer laughed when the Amarillo City Council asked him how he planned to handle the waste his planned datacenter would produce. 

“I’m not laughing in disrespect to your question,” Neugebauer said. He explained that he’d just met with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who had made it clear that any nuclear waste Neugebauer’s datacenter generated needed to go to Nevada, a state that’s not taking nuclear waste at the moment. “The answer is we don't have a great long term solution for how we’re doing nuclear waste.

The meeting happened on October 28, 2025 and was one of a series of appearances Neugebauer has put in before Amarillo’s leaders as he attempts to realize Project Matador: a massive 5,769 acre datacenter being built in the Texas Panhandle and constructed by Fermi America, a company he founded with former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry.

If built, Project Matador would be one of the largest datacenters in the world at around 18 million square feet. “What we’re talking about is creating the epicenter for artificial intelligence in the United States,” Neugebauer told the council. According to Neugebauer, the United States is in an existential race to build AI infrastructure. He sees it as a national security issue.

“You’re blessed to sit on the best place to develop AI compute in America,” he told Amarillo. “I just finished with Palantir, which is our nation’s tip of the spear in the AI war. They know that this is the place that we must do this. They’ve looked at every site on the planet. I was at the Department of War yesterday. So anyone who thinks this is some casual conversation about the mission critical aspect of this is just not being truthful.”

But it’s unclear if Palantir wants any part of Project Matador. One unnamed client—rumored to be Amazon—dropped out of the project in December and cancelled a $150 million contract with Fermi America. The news hit the company’s stock hard, sending its value into a tailspin and triggering a class action lawsuit from investors.

Yet construction continues. The plan says it’ll take 11 years to build out the massive datacenter, which will first be powered by a series of natural gas generators before the planned nuclear reactors come online.

Amarillo residents aren’t exactly thrilled at the prospect. A group called 806 Data Center Resistance has formed in opposition to the project’s construction. Kendra Kay, a tattoo artist in the area and a member of 806, told 404 Media that construction was already noisy and spiking electricity bills for locals.

“When we found out how big it was, none of us could really comprehend it,” she said. “We went out to the site and we were like, ‘Oh my god, this thing is huge.’ There’s already construction underway of one of four water tanks that hold three million gallons of water.”

For Kay and others, water is the core issue. It’s a scarce resource in the panhandle and Amarillo and other cities in the area already fight for every drop. “The water is the scariest part,” she said. “They’re asking for 2.5 million gallons per day. They said that they would come back, probably in six months, to ask for five million gallons per day. And then, after that, by 2027 they would come back and ask for 10 million gallons per day.”

During an October 15 city council meeting, Neugebauer told the city that Fermi would get its water “with or without” an agreement from the city. “The only difference is whether Amarillo benefits.” To many people it sounded like a threat, but Neugebauer got his deal and the city agreed to sell water to Fermi America for double the going rate.

“It wasn’t a threat,” Neugebauer said during another meeting on October 28. “I know people took my answer…as a threat. I think it’s a win-win. I know there are other water projects we can do…we fully got that the water was going to be issue 1, 2, and 3.”

“We can pay more for water than the consumer can. Which allows you all capital to be able to re-invest in other water projects,” he said. “I think what you’re gonna find is having a customer who can pay way more than what you wanna burden your constituents with will actually enhance your water availability issues.”

According to Neugebauer and plans filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the datacenter would generate and consume 11 gigawatts of power. The bulk of that, eventually, would be generated by four nuclear reactors. But nuclear reactors are complicated and expensive to make and everyone who has attempted to build one in the past few decades has gone over budget and they weren’t trying to build nuclear power plants in the desert.

Nuclear reactors, like datacenters, consume a lot of water. Because of that, most nuclear reactors are constructed near massive bodies of water and often near the ocean. “The viewpoint that nuclear reactors can only be built by streams and oceans is actually the opposite,” Neugebauer told the Amarillo city council in the meeting on October 28.

As evidence he pointed to the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona. The massive Palo Verde plant is the only nuclear plant in the world not constructed near a ready source of water. It gets the water it needs by taking on the waste and sewage water of every city and town nearby.

That’s not the plan with Project Matador, which will use water sold to it by Amarillo and pulled from the nearby Ogallala Aquifer. “I am concerned that we’re going to run out of water and that this is going to change it from us having 30 years worth of water for agriculture to much less very quickly,” Kay told 404 Media.

The Ogallala Aquifer runs under parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. It’s the primary source of water for the Texas panhandle and it’s drying out. 

“They don’t know how much faster because, despite how quickly this thing is moving, we don’t have any idea how much water they’re realistically going to use or need, so we don’t even know how to calculate the difference,” Kay said. “Below Lubbock, they’ve been running out of water for a while. The priority of this seems really stupid.”

According to Kay, communities near the datacenter feel trapped as they watch the construction grind on. “They’ve all lived here for several generations…they’re being told that this is inevitable. Fermi is going up to them and telling them ‘this is going to happen whether you like it or not so you might as well just sell me your property.’”

Kay said she and other activists have been showing up to city council meetings to voice their concerns and tell leaders not to approve permits for the datacenter and nuclear plants. Other communities across the country have successfully pushed datacenter builders out of their community. “But Texas is this other beast,” Kay said.

Jacinta Gonzalez, the head of programs for MediaJustice and her team have helped 806 Data Center Resistance get up and running and teaching it tactics they’ve seen pay off in other states. “In Tucson, Arizona we were able to see the city council vote ‘no’ to offer water to Project Blue, which was a huge proposed Amazon datacenter happening there,” she said. “If you look around, everywhere from Missouri to Indiana to places in Georgia, we’re seeing communities pass moratoriums, we’re seeing different projects withdraw their proposals because communities find out about it and are able to mobilize and organize against this.”

“The community in Amarillo is still figuring out what that’s going to look like for them,” she said. “These are really big interests. Rick Perry. Palantir. These are not folks who are used to hearing ‘no’ or respecting community wishes. So the community will have to be really nimble and up for a fight. We don’t know what will happen if we organize, but we definitely know what will happen if we don’t.”

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Vivian McCall

I’ll start with the basics, as outlined by 404 Media, which wrote the most straightforward account I’ve read. During a blitz of 2,000 federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, a silver Nissan Titan was driving up a snow-covered city street, but stopped when it encountered a maroon Honda blocking its way. Two agents exited the Nissan and walked toward the car. Someone shouted “get out of the fucking car,” and one of the agents rattled the Honda’s handle. The rest from 404 Media:

“The driver of the Honda reverses and turns, getting straighter with the road. The driver then slowly accelerates and starts to turn to the right, leveling the car out with its front pointing away from the two officers.

A third officer, who has been standing on the other side of the road, pulls out a firearm while the car is turning away from him and fires into the car three times. The officer fires two of the shots when the vehicle is already well past him. He is not in front of the car, but to the side. The officer calmly holsters his weapon.

The Honda, now straight on the road and its driver shot, rolls up the street and collides with a vehicle and electricity pole. The woman driver died. The driver's airbag is covered in blood.”

I’ve watched videos from three different angles. 404 Media’s description is accurate. As The Washington Post wrote this morning, “ICE agent was not in the vehicle’s path when he fired at driver, video shows.” The New York Times also has this video analysis disproving the government’s claim that the agent was hit. The videos are here, here, and here. 

After the shooting, the woman’s sobbing wife cried: “They killed my wife. I don’t know what to do. We stopped to videotape, and they shot her in the head.” Photos of the inside of the vehicle showed a bloody airbag, and a glovebox overflowing with a child’s stuffed animals. A witness, 39-year-old Emily Heller, told NBC News that watching the woman die would change her life forever. “They were on foot when they got through, and they carried her body out, just like by her limbs, they didn’t even have a stretcher," said Heller, who estimated that EMS took about 15 minutes to arrive. "She was carried out like a sack of potatoes." 

I’ll move on to the government’s lies. On X, child pornography website formerly known as Twitter, DHS said the driver was a “violent rioter” who “weaponized her vehicle,” attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism.” There were no violent rioters, and that DHS called the incident “domestic terrorism” before any investigation had taken place. The statement continued: “An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers. The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. Thankfully, the ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries.”

At a press conference, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem also called the incident an “act of domestic terrorism.”  “A woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively shot to protect himself and the people around him.” Again, no real investigation had taken place at the time she made this claim.

On Truth Social, President Donald Trump wrote “the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital.” It is not hard to believe the officer is alive, because he was not run over. On video, he’s seen walking away from the shooting.

Who was this woman? According to her mother, Donna Ganger, speaking to the Minnesota Star Tribune, the driver was 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. Ganger said her daughter lived in the Twin Cities with her wife. According to Good’s instagram, she was a “poet and writer and mom and shitty guitar strummer from Colorado.” She had a 6-year-old son, whose father died in 2023, and two children, 15 and 12, from a previous marriage, according to the AP. According to her family, she was not an activist, or involved in the protest movement. 

Who was this agent? We don’t know yet. But the BBC reported that he’d been hit by a car on the job in June. 

At a news conference, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told ICE to “get the fuck out of Minneapolis.” He continued: “They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bullshit.” In a joint statement, 11 of the city’s 13 city councilmembers demanded that ICE leave Minneapolis.

Gov. Tim Walz issued a “warning order” to the Minneapolis National Guard, which is now preparing to deploy, according to the agency’s Joint Staff Director Simon Schaefer. “From here on, I have a very simple message: We do not need any further help from the federal government,” Walz said. “To Donald Trump and [Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem, you’ve done enough.” Noem said that ICE isn’t leaving Minneapolis, and lied again: "People need to stop using their vehicles as weapons ... it's clear that it's being coordinated. People are being trained.” Rich, considering that cars became a deadly anti-protest weapon in 2020, and Republicans passed bills to absolve motorists who hit them.

Illinois Congresswoman Robin Kelly intends to impeach Noem: “I am impeaching Secretary Kristi Noem, who is an incompetent leader and a disgrace to our democracy,” she wrote on Bluesky. “She wreaked havoc in the Chicagoland area and has brought her reign of terror to Minneapolis. One of her rogue ICE agents shot and killed an innocent woman today. It must come to an end.”

In a video posted on Bluesky, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told a civilian that he’d “of course” abide by a warrant for the agent’s arrest if one is issued. Whatever bullshit the Trump administration spouts about these agents being immune to prosecution, Minnesota can absolutely prosecute this agent. As Bryna Godar writes in Slate, states have long prosecuted federal agents who allegedly use excessive force.

 

Outside I ran into Minneapolis Chief of Police Brian O’Hara who says he will abide by an arrest warrant should it be issued.

[image or embed]

— Eli Sherman (@elitalksmpls.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 1:38 PM

 

These lies from DHS, Noem, and the President remind me of Marimar Martinez. In October, she was shot by a US Customs and Border Patrol Agent several times for allegedly ramming her car into theirs while armed with a gun during an immigration enforcement blitz in Chicago, and indicted on federal charges. The case was extraordinarily weak. Martinez’s lawyer alleged that it was the agent who sideswiped her, and that her gun was securely in her purse when she was shot. Texts showed that the agent had apparently bragged about the shooting. A judge dismissed the charges.

And as my former colleague Shannon Heffernan noted on Bluesky yesterday:

 

One thing that was really notable to me during Operation Midway Blitz (similar to what is now happening in Minneapolis), was how often officers pointed guns at civilians. A few examples that stood out to me...

— Shannon Heffernan (@shannonheffernan.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 10:49 AM

 

Good and Martinez are hardly the first people shot by ICE. The Trace has identified 28 incidents in which federal agents shot someone or held them at gunpoint during an immigration raid. Agents have killed at least four people, and injured five more.

And oh, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has “reluctantly withdrawn” from the investigation after the FBI abruptly cut its access to interviews and evidence.

In Minneapolis, school is cancelled for the rest of the week after federal agents showed up at a high school during dismissal Wednesday. Last night, hundreds gathered for a vigil to memorialize Good. This morning, protesters gathered outside the city’s federal building. 

About 200 protesters also gathered at the federal building in Seattle last night, unfurling a large banner that read “ABOLISH I.C.E.” More on that later from Micah.

On Monday, Pavel Kolchick, who spent 18 years of his life in state-run psych hospitals, was found dead by construction workers at Western State Hospital. After disappearing during an authorized grounds walk Sunday morning, Kolchick had apparently climbed a construction crane before either jumping or falling to his death. Kolchick’s attorneys say three months ago, the hospital stopped his trauma therapy despite recommendations from hospital staff to continue his treatment, according to King 5.

During his arraignment in King County Superior Court Wednesday, Kamario Washington Onaki, 17, pleaded not guilty to allegedly beating, trafficking and killing 15-year-old Azjanae Brooks, a Bellevue High School freshman found dead in June. Prosecutors accused Onaki of beating Brooks and another 15-year-old girl between May and June, and shooting Brooks in the face after attempting to force her into sex work.

That fenced-off park Nathalie and I wrote about last year, Seven Hills Park in Capitol Hill, is still fenced off. The closure began on August 28, and was supposed to end around Halloween, but it’s been extended past Valentine’s Day. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog has more.

As a poet once wrote, “It's just one of those days when you don't wanna wake up/Everything is fucked, everybody sucks.” And fuck ICE.

The promise of AI-powered workplace tools that sort emails, take meeting notes, and file expense reports is finally delivering meaningful productivity gains -- one software startup reported a 20% boost around mid-2025 -- but companies are discovering an unexpected tradeoff: employees are burning out from the relentless pace of high-level cognitive work. Roger Kirkness, CEO of 14-person software startup Convictional, noticed that after AI took the scut work off his team's plates, their days became consumed by intensive thinking, and they were mentally exhausted and unproductive by Friday. The company transitioned to a four-day workweek; the same amount of work gets done, Kirkness says. The underlying problem, according to Boston College economist and sociologist Juliet Schor, is that businesses tend to simply reallocate the time AI saves. Workers who once mentally downshifted for tasks like data entry are now expected to maintain intense focus through longer stretches of data analysis. "If you just make people work at a high-intensity pace with no breaks, you risk crowding out creativity," Schor says.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Busiest Air Routes of 2025

I’ll spare you all the “best travel destinations of the year” and “where to go in 2026” slop that you’ve probably seen all over. Here’s a listicle based on real data: the busiest air routes of the past year. One glance at this list will make it obvious that the supposedly busy flight paths in North America have nothing on Asia. New York to London barely cracked the top 10 and that route had 3.97 million seats sold compared to 6.83 million for #1 Hong Kong to Taipei. Seoul had 2 of the top 5 (to Tokyo and Osaka) and there were 5.57 million seats sold for the short hop from Kualu Lumpur to Singapore. I’m guessing that Allah is responsible for the #2 route in the world: Cairo to Jeddah.

World’s Best Headphones

It’s hard for any normal person to judge “the best” over-ear headphones since few of us ever have the chance to compare a bunch of them side by side with the same music. Wired magazine did that though, with real audiophiles, and compared their blind test answers. Third place went to the most expensive (Apple Airpods Max) and second to the Nothing Headphones, but the one that came out on top had the lowest price of the six. That would be the Soundcore Space One Pro, currently going for just $149 on Amazon.

Better Guarantees From Vrbo

If you know a lot of people who book through Airbnb, you have likely heard at least a few horror stories about late cancellations by hosts, bad communication, or misrepresentations of listings. It might be worth taking a new look at Vrbo because they recently revamped their policies to become much more renter-friendly. Changes include active help when a hosts cancels (90 days out even) and stricter “Premier Host” qualifications to highlight rentals without complaints. See the full story here.

TSA Pre-check at the Office Store

Don’t want to make a trip to the airport to get approved for TSA Pre-check? Well it turns out you can do it while shopping for Sharpies and ink cartridges: Staples has an arrangement with the government to approve you for the expedited TSA security lines in the USA. You might want to check with your credit card if reimbursement for this is one of its perks (and it’s included in Global Entry), but see the details here.

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A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

The Hit Hollywood Didn’t Want. “Sinners is a threat to a business model built only on regurgitation, on endless return trips to Jurassic World, on more Toy Stories and feature-length toy commercials.”

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Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these but I’m gonna skip the apologies and get right into it. Here’s a list of what I’ve been reading, watching, listening to, and experiencing over the past several months. Let us know what movies, books, art, TV, music, etc. you’ve been enjoying in the comments below!

Dinosaur. It’s a huge pigeon on the High Line — what else do you need to know? (A-)

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. Entertaining and engaging. It’ll make a good TV series. (B+)

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I hadn’t seen this in several years but I still knew all the words. (A-)

My Brilliant Friend (season four). If there’s one thing I’ve watched in the past several years that I wish had gotten more attention from viewers, critics, and awards panels, it’s this wonderful show. (A+)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow might be the most perfectly cast role in the history of cinema. Great story too. This movie surprised me when I saw it in the theater in 2003 and it’s still in the top tier of action/adventure movies. (A)

Andor (season one). A rewatch to prep for season two. I didn’t understand what the fuss was about this show the first time around, but this second viewing was a revelation. Andor is easily the best Star Wars thing since Empire. (A+)

Galleria Borghese. As previously discussed, the Bernini sculptures were a highlight of the summer. (A+)

Caravaggio 2025. Fantastic exhibition. (A)

The vivid blue color of the Mediterranean. (A+)

La Vita è Un Mozzico. We waited for an hour for sandwiches and it was probably worth it? (A)

Black Doves. British spy thriller? Keira Knightley? Ben Whishaw? Twist my arm. (B+)

Captain America: Brave New World. I’m sorry Sam Wilson / Anthony Mackie, there’s a “we have the Avengers at home” vibe here that’s hard to shake. (B)

Music to Refine To: A Remix Companion to Severance. I love this album; one of my favorite things of the past several months. (A+)

Mickey 17. It was fine? I was distracted while watching it in the theater, which is never a good sign. My favorite Bong Joon Ho film is still Snowpiercer. (B)

Amy Sherald: American Sublime. Absolutely fantastic. (A+)

The French Dispatch. This has quietly become a favorite of mine among Anderson’s films. (A)

The Royal Tenenbaums. However, this is still my favorite. (A+)

Paris Is Burning. Classic documentary of a bygone NYC era & a subculture that is now both flourishing and threatened. (A-)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (season two). I love these characters, always the sign of a good Trek. The crossover episode with Lower Decks was delightful even though I’ve not watched any of the animated series yet. The musical episode I liked less (not a showtunes guy) but I appreciated the experimentation. Bring on the Muppet episode. (A)

Severance (season two). Perhaps not as good as the first season — there was a lot in the mid-season episodes that didn’t land for me. Still, I always watched when a new episode dropped. (A-)

Army of Shadows. Part of the unplanned resistance film festival I’ve been screening for myself recently. Not quite as good as I remembered it, but it’s nice to watch something that doesn’t just lay everything out on a platter for you so you can emote properly. (A-)

Best in Show. So many lines from this that I use in my daily life. (A-)

The 99% Invisible Breakdown: The Power Broker. This is such a good series with fantastic guests about a legendary book. Who knew that Roman Mars was such a gigglepuss though? (A)

Johnny English. I didn’t find this quite as delightful as my family does. I prefer Mr. Bean. (B+)

Paddington in Peru. Not quite the magic of the first two, but entertaining. (B)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I have likely said this before, but while Raiders is likely the best Indy movie, Last Crusade is my favorite (probably due to Tom Stoppard’s heavy rewrite of the script). (A+)

Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi. It’s interesting to watch the original trilogy having seen so many subsequent movies & TV series.

Ocean’s Twelve. The dancing lasers scene is completely ridiculous. (A)

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Well, I wasn’t expecting a critique of AI and the role of technology in society from this animated feature, but maybe I should have? (B+)

A Complete Unknown. Liked this more than I thought I would. (A-)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Just a wonderful book — witty and fun. (A)

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Fantastic book. Listen to the audiobook version if you can — Scott Brick’s narration elevates the story. (A)

A Quiet Place: Day One. I only watched this because I was on a plane. (B)

Severance (season one). After watching the second season, I rewatched season one. There was apparently much I missed the first time around. (A-)

Black Bag. Soderbergh is always worth watching, especially when he dips into Ocean’s Eleven territory — although this was more serious. (A-)

A Minecraft Movie. The first half was tolerable, enjoyable even. And then not so much. (C+)

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Watched this in the theater for the 20th anniversary. There are some good bits in here, but some of the acting really stinks. Folks in the theater cheered when Anakin slaughtered the younglings, which is probably some sort of meme that I don’t want to know about. (B+)

Sinners. I loved this movie. (A+)

Thunderbolts*. Thought I would like this more than I did. (B)

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. The last scene is a masterclass in not having the faintest idea how to end a movie. (B+)

Andor (season two). Only a slight dip from season one. Overall, the series was a brilliant look at radicalization, the messiness of rebellion, and the oppressive flatness of authoritarianism. (A+)

There There by Tommy Orange. Devastating. (A-)

The Fear of Never Landing. Good album to chill out to by Marconi Union, who previously brought you the most relaxing song in the world. (A-)

Novocaine. This was bad. (D+)

Glass Onion. More Benoit Blanc mysteries please — I love watching Daniel Craig and his CSI: KFC accent chewing scenery. (A-)

The Gorge. Half of this was great and the other half was just another pseudo-horror action thing. (B-)

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. Marvelous. (A)

Andor: The Rogue One Arc. This fan edit of Rogue One in the style of a three-episode Andor arc is as Gilroy-esque a cut as you’re ever going to get. (A-)

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. I had been kinda ambivalent about the M:I movies, but Fallout converted me, so now I’m slowly making my way back through the back catalog. (B+)

Via Carota. Best meal I’ve had in a long time. The tagliatelle was better than any pasta dish I had during my trip to Rome — it’s true, don’t @ me! And the roast chicken was perfect. (A+)

V for Vendetta. Underrated. (A-)

The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. I’m going to tell you the embarrassing truth: I thought this was about actual samurai and perhaps related to the Tom Cruise movie. It is very much not. I gave it a real shot but ended up abandoning it about halfway through. (C)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Still a marvel of animated creativity. (A)

The Phoenician Scheme. Didn’t vibe with this at all. (B-)

Downhill mountain biking. This is giving me so much life right now. (A+)

Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death. Not my favorite W&G but still. (B+)

F1. Like Top Gun: Maverick crossed with Ford v Ferarri but Cruise and Bale played the aging outsider role much better than Pitt. Is Pitt even a good actor or is he just extremely charismatic? (B+)

Superman. I thought it was fine but didn’t like it as much as others seemed to. Better than anything Zach Snyder did for DC though. (B)

Shōgun. Rewatch with my son. Just an incredible show all the way around. (A+)

The Last of Us (season two). This show was always fighting an uphill battle with me — I don’t like zombie media and I dislike characters (Ellie!) who wouldn’t survive/thrive in the situations that they’re in with their personalities & characteristics. And I finally won. (C+)

The Handmaid’s Tale (season six). *sigh* No idea why I started watching (and then finished) this season; I’m a sucker for closure I guess. (C)

Nintendo Switch 2. I bought this to play Kart with my kids and also for a better Fortnite experience. So far, so good. (B+)

Mario Kart World. I haven’t played a ton of this, but it’s good so far. Free roam mode is pretty fun. I’ve gotta write up my Kart wishlist sometime…Nintendo only checked off one or two items in World. (B+)

Sargent and Paris. Caught this on the very last day of the show and hoo boy was it crowded. (A- for the show, C+ for the crowds)

Let God Sort Em Out. Need to listen to this one a few more times but I’m liking it so far. (B+)

Right now, I’m watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season three, listening to Deacon King Kong on audiobook (fantastic, a lock for an A+), rewatching Wandavision, and picking at Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane.

Past installments of my media diet are available here. What good things have you watched, read, or listened to lately?

Tags: art · books · food · media diet · movies · music · podcasts · travel · TV · video

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