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The Credit Score Illusion: How the System Manufactures Control and Calls It Trust

By Ronald Brady | Philosophy, Finance, and the Bullshit in Between Let’s cut through the noise. Credit scores are not a reflection of financial health. They’re not a badge of responsibility, and they’re not a path to freedom. They’re a system of behavioral control, engineered to simulate risk, nudge compliance, and generate revenue for the banks that created them. I say this as someone who…

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Redefining the Term “Casual” in Fighting Games: A Behavioral Framework

Yo dudes! I just wanted to share something I wrote in response to a YouTube video. I found that I’ll include here. The short version is that the video was about perception of self in the context of competitive fighting games, and how are you see other people relative to your own skill bracket. I fundamentally disagree with the idea that these things cannot be Pinned logically and that it’s all a…

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Elevation (2024): solid premise, consistent world, but could have been so much more

Dir. George Nolfi | Starring Anthony Mackie, Morena Baccarin, Maddie Hasson Elevation pitches itself as a high-concept survival thriller, but don’t let the inevitable comparisons to A Quiet Place fool you—it’s not even playing the same game. Where A Quiet Place builds tension through silence, space, and emotional intimacy, Elevation throws down a simple premise—“stay above 8,000 feet or die”—and…

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The Queen’s Gambit: A Personal Reckoning With Genius, Grief, and the Game

The Queen’s Gambit isn’t about chess. It’s about surviving brilliance without collapsing under it. For all its lush cinematography, razor-sharp acting, and deliberate pacing, the show’s true power lies in its emotional architecture. What looks like a slick period piece about a prodigy’s rise through the male-dominated world of competitive chess is, at its core, a story about grief, trauma,…

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Fair Play and the Invisible Math of Domestic Labor: A Critical Reflection

Last night, I watched the documentary Fair Play on Hulu, and it hit harder than I expected—not because it was perfect, but because of the gaps between what it showed, what it missed, and how it quietly echoed larger systemic truths that most people never bother to think through. The documentary, inspired by Eve Rodsky’s book, explores the gendered imbalance of domestic labor. On the surface, it…

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Rewatch Review: The Last of Us Season One — A World That Doesn’t Flinch

Rewatching season one of The Last of Us before the premiere of season two isn’t just about brushing up on the story—it’s about feeling the emotional weight settle differently the second time around. The show doesn’t rely on shock or cheap suspense. It runs on grief, adaptation, and the slow, brutal evolution of what people become when the world doesn’t give them time to heal. And this time…

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Even In What Is Uglier Than Sin”: The Brutalist Is One of the Most Important Films of the Last Five Years

The Brutalist is not a film you watch. It’s a film you absorb—brick by brick, breath by breath, until it has shaped something inside you that wasn’t there before. Directed with almost monastic precision by Brady Corbet, this 3.5-hour slow-burn epic does not ask for your attention—it earns it. And it rewards that attention with one of the most harrowingly honest meditations on trauma, art,…

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Review: The Amateur (2025) — The Quiet Evolution of a Realist Action Hero

The Amateur is the kind of movie critics love to mislabel. You’ll hear stuff like “doesn’t offer a fresh perspective” or “too grounded for its own good”—which is basically code for “this didn’t have enough explosions to keep my ADHD in check.” But if you actually watch it, really watch it, what you’ll find is something way more powerful than a typical espionage thriller. What you’ll find is an…

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In Defense of Sakamoto Days (Anime): A Realistic Look at Adaptation, Expectation, and Production Constraints

When Sakamoto Days first dropped, the hype was real. The manga had already built a strong reputation, the premise was fresh, and fans were ready to witness another breakout hit. But once the anime adaptation aired, the reaction was… mixed at best. Criticism came fast and loud — some of it justified, much of it lacking context. After watching the anime and reflecting on the fan response (helped…

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Devil May Cry (2025) – Review

The story had teeth. The style had none. Until it did. When I first heard Netflix was adapting Devil May Cry into a new animated series, I got excited—not cautiously optimistic, not “eh, we’ll see.” I was ready. And when I saw Adi Shankar was behind it, I figured the worst-case scenario was still gonna be decent. The man understands early anime fandom outside of Japan better than most. He knows…

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Tekken 8 Didn’t Deserve This — Shut Up and Adapt

I did a quick arcade run with Anna Williams—probably one of the more contentious characters ever to come out in the game. Apparently nobody liked her redesign. Harada said he didn’t give a fuck. And now, all of a sudden, because of “substantial backlash,” he’s reevaluating game systems? To me, either he has no backbone—which I don’t believe—or he’s just saying that so the community feels…

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Review: A Working Man (2025)

Starring Jason Statham, Michael Peña, and David Harbour Jason Statham’s been aging like a tank—stronger, sharper, and more grounded with every role. A Working Man isn’t just another ex-special forces revenge story. It’s about a guy trying to live a quiet life, keep his head down, and still keep a promise he made when things hit the fan. And yeah, it’s got that classic Statham flavor—but this…

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Review: Novocaine (2025)

Starring Jack Quaid & Amber Midthunder Novocaine is one of those movies that takes a tired formula—action comedy—and actually does something different with it. Jack Quaid plays Nathan, this painfully awkward bank employee with congenital insensitivity to pain, which basically means he can’t feel anything physically. It’s not a superpower—it’s a medical condition that’s made his life small, safe,…

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Cracking the Code: Understanding Hunter Rank Progression in Monster Hunter Wilds

By an Anonymous Monster Hunter Enthusiast Introduction While enjoying my time in Monster Hunter Wilds, I became curious about how the game calculates Hunter Rank (HR) progression. It’s no secret that progressing through the ranks can feel unpredictable, and I wanted to better understand the underlying system. Using a combination of observation, data tracking, and analysis, I was able to…

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Review: Den of Thieves 2: Pantera

“A tiger can’t change its stripes”—but this franchise did. And it’s better for it. Let’s get one thing straight: the original Den of Thieves was solid. Gritty. Functional. A cool watch if you wanted a hard-boiled heist film with some shootouts and a twist ending. But Pantera? This is a different animal. Same world, same DNA, but this time the story actually breathes. The characters move like…

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Review: Den of Thieves (2018) Rough around the edges, but heavy where it counts

The first Den of Thieves walks into the heist genre wearing its influences loud—Heat, The Town, even End of Watch—but it does more than just cosplay. What you get is a stripped-down, bullet-stained chess match between crooked cops and professional criminals, both moving with the kind of swagger that comes from living one inch from total collapse. Gerard Butler’s “Big Nick” O’Brien is a walking…

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Garouden: The Way of the Lone Wolf — A Fighter’s Review

Garouden isn’t your average tournament anime. It’s not Baki, it’s not Kengan Ashura, and it’s definitely not a style-over-substance combat parade. It’s raw, deliberate, emotionally loaded martial arts storytelling built for people who’ve actually fought, or at the very least understand what it means to fight. The first season, released on Netflix, is a flawed but deeply honest exploration of…