The Weekly Write-Up #23

Boy, are you all in for a treat today! Today I’m writing about four things that I’ve been wanting to write about for a while now, but I couldn’t for various reasons. I was very excited to review these, and I hope you all enjoy these reviews! Also, this is my longest newsletter to date, so bear with me on that! Thanks for reading!

In this newsletter…

• Why I didn’t like The Great Gatsby…

• Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania Review!

• NEVER EVER forget a password again!

• A fun (and cute) board game about animals!

Something I Read

THE GREAT GATSBY

I finished another book! The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a book that I’ve known about for a while, but didn’t pick it up until recently since I had to read it for school. The Great Gatsby takes place in the heat of the Roaring 20s and portrays the lifestyle of people during this time period. The story is about Jay Gatsby who desperately wants to reunite with his long-lost lover, Daisy Buchanan, who has some issues with her husband, Tom. Nick, the narrator, gives the reader a view into the high-strung life of the rich in the 1920s.

As with most books, there were both good and bad things about this book. Though I teased this section as “why I didn’t like The Great Gatsby,” there are still some good things to be said about this book. The biggest pro of this book is that it accurately portrayed the Roaring 20s in America. The Roaring 20s were a time of change in American society in multiple areas, and this book showed exactly what that looked like through a historical-fiction narrative. If I had to guess, this was most likely Fitzgerald’s purpose in writing the book in the first place. So, it is good that the biggest pro of the book is his main reason for writing. Something else that stuck out to me in this book was the beautiful language that Fitzgerald used as he wrote the book. He used dialogue and description in such a way as to give you the feel of the city and the time period. Some parts even sounded like straight up poetry! In those two respects, Fitzgerald achieved impressive results, but in my personal opinion, the plot was not as well done. Allow me to explain: I honestly didn’t really know where Fitzgerald was going for most of the book. It wasn’t until chapter 5 (or maybe even later) that I finally realized where the book was going. Considering that the book is only 9 chapters long, that is over halfway through the book. Through most of the book, I struggled through wondering “why am I reading this and what is this book about?” I didn’t understand where Fitzgerald was taking the plot and who the focus of the story was on! One final thing to consider was the ending. While I won’t spoil (because spoilers are the worst), I will say that the ending was tragic and unexpected. I both liked and disliked the ending. I liked how it was unexpected because I hate it when I can predict the ending after the first chapter or two of the book. I will say, though, that the ending was weird and left me unsatisfied.

Am I glad I read the book? Yes, I would say I’m glad I read the book because it showed me what life was like in the 1920s, but I would not read it again. Would I recommend this to other people? It depends on the person. If you are looking for an accurate and entertaining historical-fiction book, then I think this would be a decent book to read. I also wouldn’t recommend this to anyone under the age of 14, as there are some mature themes. I recommend this book saying that it most likely won’t be your favorite book that you have ever read, but that it will show you what life was like in the Roaring 20s and how that shaped American life. Buy the book for only $5.91 on Amazon.

Something I Watched

ANTMAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA

Last week, the newest Marvel movie, Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania, came out in theaters. I watched this movie twice this week with two different groups of people and am ready to give my review on this new movie!

Since Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania is the very start of phase 5 of the MCU, it plays a significant role. The story follows Scott Lang/Antman (Paul Rudd), Hope Van Dyne/The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) when they get sucked into the Quantum Realm. They must fight to survive in the Quantum Realm as Kang the Conquerer (Jonathan Majors) pursues them. During their time in the Quantum Realm, they discover what Janet was really doing while she was there. They also must fight and attempt to stop Kang from wreaking havoc on the multiversal timeline! This movie is important because it sets up the rest of phase 5 for the MCU. Based on this movie and some of Marvel’s other recent movies, I would guess that phase 5 is going to focus more on the Quantum Realm, the multiverse, and the concept of time. This movie is also significant because it introduces Kang, who is most likely going to be a pivotal character in the MCU going forward. After all, the title of the upcoming Avengers movie is Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (2024). So, this movie is a key movie in the MCU timeline, moving forward.

While not Marvel’s best movie ever, Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania, had both good things and some bad things about it. As with every Marvel movie, the action scenes were great and continue to get better! Throughout this movie, we learn a few more things about the Quantum Realm and about Kang. I think this movie was very enjoyable (I mean, I watched it twice, and I enjoyed it both times)! I will say that it did feel like a very typical sci-fi movie with a pretty typical plot and a fairly predictable ending. Although, there were some parts of the movie where I was scared that it wouldn’t turn out all right! I also felt like it was more like a Star Wars movie than a Marvel movie, which depending on who you ask could be a good thing or a bad thing. I’m totally fine with that, but I just noticed that it seemed like they were trying to do a hint of Star Wars. Overall, I would say that this movie felt more like a bridge to the movies coming ahead from where the MCU has been before. The movie itself was pretty good, but the most important part of it is probably to show where the MCU is going in the future.

Summing up, I definitely enjoyed this movie and am glad that I saw it! Is it the best Marvel movie I’ve ever seen? No, it definitely isn’t the best one out there and not the best one that Marvel has come out with recently. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is much better and will win for the best recent Marvel movie (click here for my review on that movie). Does it deserve to be the 2nd worst rated Marvel movie (Eternals is worst rated)? Again no, I can think of 5 Marvel movies right off the top of my head that are way worse than this movie. I would recommend this movie to Marvel fans because it is important for the future of the MCU, and it is just a pretty good movie!

Tech Thoughts

1PASSWORD

A common situation with basically any person on this planet is forgetting their password(s). You can’t remember if it was “samplepassword1234!” or “1234samplepassword!?” and you know you wrote it down somewhere, but you also lost that paper! I know I’ve encountered this situation before, and I’m forced to reset my password. Well, I have an app that is the ultimate solution to this problem! 1Password was built for this exact reason, to help you remember all of your passwords and never lose them again. 1Password is both secure and convenient, making your life so much easier!

1Password is secured by one password, and that is the only password you have to remember (hence the name of the app)! You can also unlock the app with Face ID or Touch ID as well. All of your passwords are stored in the app, and you can easily add new passwords, logins, secure notes, credit card numbers, identities, private documents, bank accounts, memberships, licenses, and basically anything else that you want to be kept secure. 1Password can even create a secure password for you so you don’t have to do the work of creating it yourself! After the item is created, it can be placed into vaults and collections to organize them, so you know exactly where they are kept. You can even share vaults with other people (like family members) so you can all see your shared passwords (like your Disney+ password). 1Password has so much more to offer, like favoriting items for quick access, one-time passwords for extra security, a search feature to find passwords quickly, and a website extension so you can easily have access to your passwords when logging into websites on the internet! There is so much more to offer that you will have to discover for yourself!

Since security should be the #1 priority when it comes to an app that keeps all of your passwords, let’s take a look at the security of 1Password. I mean, nobody wants the app leaking their passwords across the internet! Right?! All of your passwords in the app are encrypted and safe from hacking. Another safety feature is that when you copy passwords to your clipboard to paste them into a password box, they are deleted from the clipboard, so somebody couldn’t find them later. Finally, 1Password has something called ‘watchtower’ which gives you security suggestions and other helpful tips. It displays your overall password strength, tells you which passwords are reused, what passwords are weak and need to be changed, and what websites are insecure. This is all very helpful for ensuring that your passwords are safe!

1Password is arguably the best password app out there! It is convenient and secure, making for a fantastic password app. My family has been using 1Password for years, and we have loved using it! You can try the app for free for 2 weeks. After this, it is only $2.99 per month for a personal plan and $4.99 for the family plan (up to 5 people). They also offer plans for business if you or someone you know would be interested in that. You can go to 1password.com to learn more or download the app on the App Store or Google Play (you’re welcome, Android users). I hope that this app will make your life so much easier and help you never forget a password again!

Wild Card

ROOT

Root is the newest board game my family has purchased, and it is one of our new favorites! We bought it because it got excellent reviews, and people spoke praises of it on Board Game Geek. In this game, each player plays as a different group of animals (Marquise de Cat, Woodland Alliance, Eyrie Dynasties, or the Vagabond) and attempts to become the most powerful and get to 30 points to win the game! What is unique about this game is that each player has his/her group of animals who gets points by doing entirely different things. (The board game, Villainous, has a similar concept.) For example, Marquise de Cat gets points for buildings, while Woodland Alliance gets points for sympathy. Since everyone is working for different goals, it makes the game very interesting!

According to the box, Root is for 2–4 players, ages 10+, and takes about 60-90min to play. The age rating is difficult to decide, and I would put this game at 12+, rather than 10+ since it is slightly difficult. What makes it difficult is that everyone has to learn how to play their faction (animal group), and while there are general rules shared, a lot of the game is played off these factions. Once you learn your faction, the game really isn’t that difficult, but it takes some learning and getting used to for sure! Luckily, there is a Walking through Root booklet that comes with the game which can lead you through your first 2 turns if you are confused. For younger players, I would recommend Marquise de Cat since it is the easiest to play, but if everyone else knows what they are doing, it can also be the weakest. As for the time on the game, as always, it depends on how many players you are playing with. I would say a 2 player game takes 45 min, a 3 player game takes 60 min, and a 4 player game takes that full 90 min. (It will definitely take longer if it is your first play!)

Now, let’s talk about what I like and what I don’t like about this game. Overall, I really, really like this game! It has beautiful (and cute) components, the gameplay is fun, and it takes a lot of strategy. It is quickly becoming one of my new favorite games, although I say that about many games. Now, at first, I was unsure of whether I liked that everyone’s game was a little different. My reasoning for this was that the game could become unfair if some factions were more powerful than others. I’m going to pick on Villainous a bit here because I am not convinced that these are fair; a lot are decided by finding a card in the deck and some seem more powerful than others. So far, I think that Root is mostly fair. At first, it seemed like Marquise de Cat won the most, but we have had all three other factions win respective games! I have been pleasantly surprised by this game. It is so fun to play a different faction each game and learn the different experiences you get with each faction!

This is a fantastic game, and I’ve really enjoyed playing it in the past few weeks! Anyone who enjoys board games and/or animals should check out this awesome game! It really reminds me of the Redwall Books that I’ve talked about before. There is also a Root App which you can download on the App Store. It is $9.99 and it does an impressive job of portraying the original game. I have played a few games on the app, and it is an excellent app. Purchase it on Amazon by going here! There are also expansions that you can purchase to add new factions and change up the gameplay. I love Root, and I can’t wait until I get to play it the next time! As always, if you have any questions about the game or the rules of the game, please post them down in the comments, and I will answer your question to the best of my ability.