The Professional Gamer - December 18, 2017

Hello, and thank you for returning again this week. As much as I love Star Wars, I've got too much Christmas stuff to get ready to go to the theater this weekend. But, good news for you, that means this blog will be spoiler free. I'm spending a lot of time in my living room and kitchen, signing cards, wrapping gifts, and baking cookies; but, I can also multitask my dear reader. Therefore, the them for the week is: being a geek while you work on other stuff.

The largest contributor of this type of work for me is podcasts. I'm listening to some back episodes of Planet Money as I write this. Earlier this week, I caught up on three episodes of Welcome to Nightvale. Since my job has me tied to a desk most of the time, I'm often listening to podcasts while I work (unless I'm trying to read a longer, more involved document. I can't split my attention that well). To be fair, most of my podcast habit is not "geeky", per se, but give me a chance to learn more about the world in some way. Or they make me laugh, which can be just as important in recent days.

As I mentioned earlier, I spent a lot of time this past week working on cards and presents for the holidays, and was looking for something to watch on TV while I did so. I'm not sure why, but I decided to pick up Slayers: Next. This is my favorite Slayers series. It is, for the most part, very funny, and the progression of the more serious seasonal story arc. And, this is probably the best seasonal arc as well, with a number of adversaries that all have their own plans and motivations. Sometimes those plans conflict and cause the antagonists to fight among themselves. Although that infighting gives Lina and the crew a bit of a respite, it does not help them in the long run. I often wish that the show went a bit deeper into its own lore and cosmology, but I can see where those details would tend to wreck the pacing and slow everything down. Is Slayers: Next a perfect show? No, but it is very good. If you missed this series for whatever reason, I recommend picking it up. It's available to stream from Funimation, or you can spend about $30 to buy all three original seasons on DVD, which is a great price per enjoyment in my book.

That's what I've got for the week. What about you? Do you have a go to piece or type of media when you need to multitask? Tell me about it in the comments below. Have a great week, and game on!