Checking In (Monday 7 September 2026)

Last week was one of those weeks where things start busy at the end of last weekend and just carry on being busy until the next weekend. Busy at work and busy at home because we had a house guest that showed up last Sunday and departed Saturday morning. This is why I wasn't active during the week and it was only yesterday when I got something out. Not exactly a great start to the new month but it's another week now so this can count as Great Start (Take 2). Hopefully that also doesn't count as a jinx because it's when I'm planning things out or looking forward to something, stuff gets in the way and it happens so often that I've noticed. 

I want to throw in a little reminder about the Saturday edition of Weekend Bonus Stage having two episodes of The Circle remaining. I wrote about this in the Show Notes for Episode 23 and had asked for anyone to chime in with recommendations and suggestions for the next fiction audiobook that we can get into. That episode came out a couple of weeks ago and I still haven't gotten any responses from anyone, so it means that we'll go with Plan B - the sequel to The Circle and that book is titled The Every. It was released a few years back, maybe you had the chance to read it or listen to the audiobook? If you went the audiobook route then you might have noted that Dion Graham, who narrated The Circle's audio version, was brought back to narrate The Every's audio version. I thought that was pretty cool and if you liked Dion then you might enjoy listening to him again in The Every. I'm aware that I don't have a sizeable following made up of people who are active with feedback, questions, comments and so on but I still asked anyway in the hope that there might be some signs of life from those who have been checking out Weekend Bonus Stage, especially for the audiobooks. It would've meant there's variety for the next book instead of just going with my selections (unless of course people are happy with my selections, then fair enough). I guess it's more of a sign that I still have a long way to go as far as building up an audience, which is tougher now because I haven't gone the influencer/streamer/YouTuber/TikToker/mainstream alternative media talking head route. I'm still on the same route as when I started back in 2019 of just putting out what I think is cool and might be cool to others. No clickbait, no engagement farming, none of that nonsense. It's a longer route sure and the temptation is always there to just switch over to the other lane but I'm still going and haven't given up yet.

As for WBS Sunday edition, there are still seven chapters of All the Presidents' Bankers remaining and each is long enough to count as an episode so you're looking at either October or early November for the time to pick the next non-fiction audiobook. There are two that I listened to back to back recently, both are autobiographies and either of them could be a "short break" detour before the next "heavy" book to follow Nomi Prins' book. Just like for Saturday, I'm open to other books as suggestions if you have any.

On a brief side note before I sign off - I had a chance to watch that Grand Theft Auto 6 Extended Look video a few days after it aired on Netflix. With all those Cyber Leek leaks which came out leading up to that video, I wonder if Cyber Leek is still dumping more stuff or did that video take away whatever attention those leaks were getting? The same short minute leaks that people actually paid money too! I'll say GTA 6 looks spectacular from what the video showed off: the interesting characters, the activities that can be done, the look of Vice City and other locations and even some of the songs featured made me curious about what the overall soundtrack of the game will be like. It's the quality of the GTA soundtracks which I've noticed since San Andreas to have declined over time, especially the commercials and talk radio shows. The humour just wasn't as sharp and crisp as it was before. I don't see myself playing GTA 6 anytime soon if at all since I don't have any current generation console nor do I have a beast of a gaming computer (although, maybe it could handle GTA 5? MAYBE). If it can play GTA 5 then that will be a good place to say Goodbye to GTA as far as playing the games goes. The motivation to keep up with gaming in general has just not been there for me from the time my "chipped" PS2 expired in 2012. Nowadays I'm happy enough to watch a Let's Play series for modern games that I find interesting enough (it just sucks that many Let's Players - and other video content creators - want to livestream nearly everything now and then be constantly distracted by whatever goes on in the chats, which does not make for content that is fun to watch). If I want to play a game, it'll likely be something old (from the 80's, 90's, 2000's and maybe early to mid-2010s) that I didn't get a chance to play during its time in the spotlight. At least most games like that were full and you didn't need internet access for extras like DLCs or to download the game onto your console if the physical copy was unavailable or maybe more expensive. That ain't for me.

Have a good week ahead (if it's Take 2 for you too then all the best) and take care.